


Endure and Survive (To The Edge Of The Universe and Back)

by Antisafic, ewebean



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Last of Us
Genre: Apocalypse, Bilbo may or may not become homo dads with Thorin, Body Horror, Fili and Kili are cures to the infection, M/M, Minor Character Death, Survival, The Last of Us AU, Zombies, company cameos, dog-eat-dog world, runners clickers and bloaters oh my!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-01-27 14:02:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1713242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antisafic/pseuds/Antisafic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewebean/pseuds/ewebean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty years after a fungal spore-based infection rapidly spreads across the globe, a vast majority of the world’s population has been reduced to either struggling survivors or deadly ravenous mutants capable of killing with a single bite. Bilbo Baggins may have been a bit over his head on deciding last minute to tag along with an ill-tempered uncle and his kid nephews on a perilous cross country adventure to possibly save the world from itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 20 Years Later

**Author's Note:**

> _It is not imperative to have played the game to understand this fic. We have worked to make sure no one is left behind._

**SPRING**

_March 1, 2035_

 

It was spring when Dis died. Fitting really, as she hated the season. Thorin didn't know what month it happened - months, day, holidays - It didn’t matter. Hadn’t for about twenty years now, who kept track anyway? The government?  But if he guessed, Thorin would summarize around March. Two weeks from her birthday. He didn’t have anything for her -nothing she would have accept anyway- but had planned on babysitting his nephews.

Who were, at the moment, missing. It was Sunday which meant they weren't at school (if you could call it that). Their education system gave their students weekends off in a reassuring form of structure and normality to make it seem the world wasn’t collapsing around them. It wasn’t as if they often misbehaved, Fili in particular was the model of responsibility and wisdom far beyond any right a fifteen year old should be.

He’d been planning to stay inside as much as possible. After three days of work outside the quarantine zone he needed to recoup. Outside work left him limp and exhausted. Even if the work itself wasn’t entirely taxing, the constant rush of adrenaline every time he heard a sound plucked at the already tight strings of his mental stability. The prospect of a comatose sleep in the QZ was far more appealing than the short naps he got outside the wall.

Outside was dark and gloomy, reminiscent of the recent winter and quickly fading daylight. Maybe Dis was onto something in her distaste of spring? The light mist of rain was already beginning to gain momentum and Thorin had to pull his jacket closer to keep the bit of wind out and keep himself dry.

The main street was already deserted, he could see shadows in the windows above but the moment he looked up they closed. He really didn’t want to stay out later than he was. Getting caught after curfew wasn’t on his already long list of headaches for the day.

In the distance he heard hurried footsteps down an alley, the distinct sound of shoe on damp brick. The sound drew closer and Thorin found himself flattening against the walls, his hand hovering over the hunting knife on his belt. It was probably nothing but a young kid hurrying home before curfew, but he wasn’t taking his chances on getting caught in a scuffle.

A whirl of brown curls and red cardigan passed him before it stopped, slipping a bit in the moss growing on the broken cement.

The hand tightened on his knife.

“Are you Thorin?” The boy asked.

“Who’s asking?” He rebutted.

“It’s about Fili and Kili.”

The hand lowered and he stepped forward. “Are they okay?” He asked with a bit more distress in his voice then he intended to show.

“Fine, fine, sort of, but you might want to come with me,” the boy whispered.

Without another word the boy turned and slipped back down the alley. Thorin took a deep breath and let it out, carefully watching the steam rise wishing he could still smoke his troubles away before following.

They ran down alleyways and turns that had Thorin’s internal map spinning. He stopped to look at Firedrakes symbols on the walls. The first few didn’t bother him but after the fifth he began to feel a deep seeded apprehension. He had never been to this end of town. A sense of doubt in his decision began to trickle down his neck much like the wayward rain around him. He could easily take on the small person before him, Thorin was easily taller than most. But if this was some sort of trap set by smart muggers who could choose an actor, he was quite done for. The need to see his nephews safe kept him going, however being herded around like a sheep wasn’t his style.    

“Who are you?” He asked finally when they reached a old shipyard. The boy had stopped and was peering around a corner.

“My name is Bilbo,” answered the boy quietly from ahead, not even sparing to look back at him.

“The teacher?” He gritted out in an all too real shock. His nephews often spoke fondly of their new instructor at the school. Kili in particular always had something to say about Mister Baggins, even on the days they weren't scheduled to see him. Thorin himself had never met him but all he knew was Mister Baggins had transferred from a different zone after the last Firedrakes attack. He hadn’t expected him to be so, small.

“Yes. Look, I don’t know what your boys were doing but they’re kind of cornered at the moment,” Bilbo said, leaning on the wall taking deep quiet breaths. “Are you armed?” He asked before Thorin could respond.

Thorin hesitated a moment before answering, “A knife. What do you mean cornered?” Thorin hissed in sudden fear, “Infected?”

“I don’t know,” Bilbo hastily added. “But if there are, Fili should have dealt with them before, right?” He finished, dropping his voice even lower as though someone close by was listening on.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you're talking about,” Thorin muttered.

“Look I’m not looking for trouble, but I know about Fili’s _condition,_ ” He said, waving his hand around in a harried manner, as if he was speaking about the poor weather and the shortage of food stamps. He clearly did not understand the true gravity of this knowledge. And how did he know about it? Such information should have only been privy to their family. He was going to have some words with his darling nephew.

Determined to gather control of the situation, Thorin reached forward to grab the man’s shoulder but faster than he anticipated, the teacher slipped from his grip indignantly.

“Look I’m sure I’m not supposed to know, but it doesn't matter right now,” the shorter of the two said sternly, in a tone that was meant to steer Thorin back to the point. This little squirrel! “As far as I am aware, it’s just humans down there, some vagabonds looking for a drop off. Your boys just got in the crossfire. They don’t know Fili and Kili are in there,” Bilbo added in an attempt to be soothing, “I think we can get them out, if we work together.”

“How did you how about this?” Thorin asked. “And they’re not my boys, they’re my sister’s.”

“Who has passed. So they’re yours.” The shorter man reminded him and Thorin’s mighty frown intensified. Bilbo's eyes softened. “Look, I gave them a old pair of walkie talkies. I may have been filling their heads with stories and so I gave them two and told them to go play. I have the last one and I had it on and you better be thankful I did. They called me because they thought they were being followed,” he pointed to the rusted hulking warehouse. “They are in there on the other side of the yard.”  

“And how the fuck are we supposed to get them out?” Thorin seethed at Bilbo. What kind of instructor told two children to go out and play in condemned buildings? An irresponsible and lazy one, quite possibly.

“Stealthy, if we can,” Bilbo said. “But we can take some out if we have to.”

Thorin narrowed his eyes at the curly haired man.

A crackling noise from Bilbo’s pocket cut through the sound of their tense silence and the rain’s quiet muffling of armored vehicles in the distance.

“Fili, Kili?” Bilbo questioned, fishing the walkie talkie out.

“Bilbo!” Fili’s voice yelled out. They instantly tensed up. Around the corner Thorin heard loud voices and a gunshot.

“Fili! What’s going on?” Bilbo asked into the air. Thorin’s hair was on end followed by the ringing in his ears from the gunshot. He could hear it now, over the speaker on the walkie talkie and echoed down below. Clickers, a lot of clickers.

“We’re safe but we’re trapped, we’re on top of some metal containers, they don’t know we’re here, but we can see them, they’re all on the ground floor. We can’t get out, what do we do?”

“Hold on, Thorin and I are on our way. Stay there and keep quiet.” Bilbo urged. “Do you understand?”

There was silence before Fili uttered quietly, “Uncle is there.”

Thorin grabbed the device out of Bilbo’s hand, ignoring the other man’s squawk. “Yes I’m here and you two are in so much trouble so help me when I find you.”

“We’re sorry, Uncle,” Fili said with Kili echoing in the background.

“Save it, just stay alive,” Thorin said through gritted teeth. He threw the thing back to Bilbo.

“Was that—”

“Fuck you. My nephews are stuck in there. Just. Don’t.” Thorin growled. “Let's go.”

His last remaining family was in danger and he wanted to shout and raise hell. But it didn’t change the fact that being caught out past curfew or by clickers would lower any chance to get to them so he seethed in quiet anger instead. Thorin truly wanted to stomp on ahead and leave the man responsible for this whole horrible situation behind, but he forced himself to wait. He leveled a withering look at Bilbo until the smaller man stiffly moved to take the lead.

—

 

They traveled through darkened pigeon-holed buildings and kept wary eyes for movements other than their own. They reached the edge of the shipyard and their pace slowed to a crawl until Bilbo suddenly stopped. By now, Thorin could taste the salt in the air and more vegetation crawled up rusted inter-modal husks. He’s never been here, and he’d most certainly never had the desire to. It smelled of trouble. But he could picture the place in daylight and see the appeal behind the place. Through boyish logic Thorin could guess why Fili and Kili decided to explore the area. There were certainly many different places two small boys could climb and hide from responsibilities.

Bilbo’s curly head turned back to look at Thorin and gave him a pointed gaze. He understood. From here on now they would have to be quiet. There was no telling who or what would see them as they darted from place to place in search of the boys.

Carefully, Bilbo drew the radio to his lips and clicked it. “...Boys?”

A moment of silence before there was a faint crackle of static, and then they both heard it. Clicking. Blood rushed up Thorin’s head. The boys had flipped their talkie on, but their intent was clear: they were so surrounded it was risky to even talk.

Bilbo made sure the radio was off and shoved it into his pocket with a frustrated huff. The only thing Thorin was able to decipher was a hissing, “ _Drat_ ,” and they turned to each other with wild eyes. Thorin was distractedly thrown back by the tame curse. Cussing was a crass norm to their current society, he’s heard even children spit obscenity that could curdle sailors. So it wasn't entirely surprising he was taken aback by the vanilla choice of words from the man.

“What weapons do you have on you?” Thorin demanded.

Bilbo reached in and pulled out a small pocket knife with a wooden handle that had seen many years and flipped the blade out, twisting the metal with one hand. “A frenchman knife, nothing more. You?”

“A hunting knife. I hadn’t expected to be fighting infected you know,” Thorin shot back. Bilbo seemed to have the decency to look guilty.

Obviously disheartened, Bilbo waved for the taller man to follow him, “Alright, the best defense we have against clickers would be height. We have to get up there,” he pointed up the inter-modal.

Thorin nodded seriously, “Right. I’ll boost you.”

Bilbo jerked back, “Pardon?” He squeaked.

The taller man bent forward and held his hands cupped in front of him, eyebrows raised. “Step on, Teach.”

“I, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Bilbo protested, eyes fixed on Thorin’s hands, “I’m heavier than I look.”

“I don’t doubt it. Hop on.”

Bilbo’s cheeks inflated and deflated quickly as he huffed, much like a small bird before he turned up his nose and stepped closer. “I—I’m stepping on now.”

Thorin grunted.

Bilbo hesitated but quickly placed a foot into Thorin's hands and with more strength than he may have intended, he lifted the shorter man with almost wild enthusiasm. Bilbo wobbled in his hand before latching onto the ledge of the shipping crate with white knuckles. Contrary to what he said earlier, Thorin’s observations had been wrong. Bilbo was clearly lighter than he originally thought.

“Could warn a guy,” Thorin heard Bilbo mutter above him.

Thorin turned around just as Bilbo scrambled up and a split second later the teacher popped back into view with a wild look in his eye. Bilbo raised a finger to his lips. Taking a deep breath he dared a look behind him and there, just below the broken stairwell, was a clicker. Turning back around, Bilbo reached an arm down and as quietly as he could muster, lifted Thorin up onto the crate.

Now safely out of easy picking, the two bent over to look around their surroundings. Back down on the ground Thorin could now see the hoard of clickers that were gathering around the far wall. From the look of it, the drop off group had opened a holding room with infected locked inside. They were lucky that the spores hadn’t accumulated to be considered substantially fatal. Neither Bilbo nor Thorin had gas masks on them. Even the tiniest inhale of the toxic bacterium could have turned them.

“I see them,” Bilbo whispered in his ear, pointing a finger to two small figures in the far off distance. True to his word there on the far end of the room was Fili and Kili huddled together between two containers stacked on top of each other. They didn’t appear to have seen them yet but the weight Thorin had in his chest lessened at the sight of his nephews.

“How do we get across?” Bilbo mouthed at him, eyeing the clicker that had just walked right below them. Horrid things, clickers. True to their namesake, they let out a horrible guttural clicking from their rotten and mutated throats. Their only weakness was that they could not see like runners and were blind due to the tremendous amount of cordyceps growing on their faces. Clickers used echolocation like bats, and when they hear movement they were quick to kill.

Thorin crawled across the container and gripped a plank of wood that was leaning against it. Carefully lifting it he dragged it over to the side leading to Fili and Kili and lifted it over the distance to the next inter-modal.

Taking a deep breath Thorin got up and tested the first few feet of the plank. It was old, that much was clear, but wasn’t rotting thanks to the the sea salt air and time indoors. He carefully walked his way across with little to no sound. Once on the other side he motioned for Bilbo to follow.

Bilbo was halfway across when Thorin dared a look behind him and sure enough Fili and Kili had spotted them now. Kili was leaning on hands and knees and waving at him, Fili was more set back looking down on the ground around them. Thorin waved back and motioned for them to stay where they were. Last thing he needed was for them to get into any sort of trouble.

With Bilbo now on the container they worked together to move it to the next one and in a game of hopscotch they silently made their way to the boys. As they got closer the board they were using began to creak more. It didn’t seem to attract the clickers' attention but on the last crate to the boys Thorin began to notice splintering on the wood.

Bilbo was halfway across when it snapped. It was a deafening crack and Thorin watched as Bilbo’s eyes widened in frozen horror before dropping to the floor. Thorin leaped to the edge of the crate and already he could head the congregation of writhing and flailing clickers heading their way, Bilbo was already up and standing and Thorin leaned down as much as he dared groping for Bilbo’s hand. Two clickers had rounded the corner as Thorin lifted the smaller man up onto the crate flattening them down to the top. He could hear them desperately trying to climb onto the inter-mold, some of them gaining height before dropping back down.

Glass cracking far off in the distance caught his attention and Thorin looked up just as an old bottle flew over them and down two crates over. The two of them flipped around and there stood Fili and Kili and a lineup of a few bottles and debris chucking them as far as they could. Slowly the clickers seemed to lose interest in them and began to stalk towards the sound. Away from them.

“Quickly!” Thorin surged up, hauling Bilbo with him. “Jump across!” He urged the boys with open arms. Bilbo quickly mirrored him.

Encouraged, the boys both took a running leap into the air. Fili landed heavily into Bilbo’s arms, knocking him back a few steps. Thorin reached out for Kili and locked onto his small forearms as the brunette slipped on the edge of the container. Thorin swore as a clicker heard the scuffle and reared up groping for Kili, it managed to grasp his leg. Thorin clenched his eyes close and gripped, using all of his strength to lift him far up from the ground, effectively detaching the clicker’s clutch.

“Over here, I see a way out,” Bilbo ushered pointing to a half fallen stairwell that led to the outside of the building. “It’s just a quick jump.”

Thorin nodded and held onto Kili as he herded Fili after Bilbo onto the stairwell and, with no more incidents, exited the building.

It wasn’t until they were back on the main streets and in the hallway of Thorin’s apartment that they even stopped to catch their breath. Bilbo leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, wide eyed and looking as stressed as Thorin felt.

“What on earth were you two thinking!?” Thorin growled rounding on Fili and Kili. The older of the two immediately shrunk in guilt and Kili backed up a few steps looking at his feet.

“Sorry, Uncle Thorin,” Fili muttered.

“Sorry, you’re sorry,” He parroted in disbelief, “You need to be careful Fili, you know better.” Thorin raised his chin to point at Bilbo, who was watching the spectacle with owled eyes. “Had Mister Baggins not gotten to me when he did, Maker knows where you two would be right now!” Thorin shouted.

Fili seemed to have deflated and was now looking at the ground with building tears in his eyes. Thorin, sensing that he was beating an already dead horse, gripped Fili’s arm and pulled him into an embrace, reaching out to Kili and bringing him in too.

“Please don’t do that again,” was all he could muster after all the adrenaline and deep-seated worry.

“And you,” Thorin said standing up and looking down at Bilbo, who at this point had caught his breath and was already in the process of standing up. “Thank you for sticking your neck out for them. I know it’s more than anyone else would do. But I’m still angry at you for getting them into this mess in the first place.”

“It’s not really Mister Baggin’s fault, uncle,” Fili defended boldly, stepping forward.

“No. It’s not, but his actions had consequences just as yours did,” Thorin returned, swiveling to narrow his eyes at his nephew.

“Kili, you’re bleeding!” Bilbo exclaimed suddenly before Fili could raise his voice in argument. Thorin looked down at the younger boy and saw that his whole right leg from the knee down was red, the blood seeping into his jeans.

“Why didn’t you say anything, Kili?” Thorin asked gently and knelt down to lift the bottom of his jeans.

Quickly Kili pulled away and backed up to the other side of the hall, shaking his head.

“Kili?” Thorin pressed, fear and suspicion already pooling in his gut. Fili next to him tensed and the brothers looked to be having one of their silent conversation based on the looks they were giving each other.

“I—I’m really sorry,” Kili apologized quietly, and his small hands shook as he gripped his jeans and lifted.

He heard Bilbo gasp and Fili make a pained sound as they all saw the still bleeding bite on Kili’s ankle. The whole hallway stopped in time and light rain was suddenly very loud on the window panes as Thorin felt his blood turn ice cold. In an instant he felt numb and detached, like he was watching this horrid situation from an out-of-body experience.

“Well fuck,” Thorin said flatly. He stood up, turning away. He stopped a few paces to stare at the wall and then back at Kili’s leg, and held his hand to his face. “Kili,” Thorin grounded out, unable to create full sentences as his mind jumped from one scenario of escape to the next. There was no way this was happening, not here and not now. His sudden disbelief had transformed into full fledged anger: anger at himself, Bilbo, the world, Dis, the clicker, none of it seemed to matter anymore. In a flash of need to vent his frustrations he kicked the wall, his boot grinding noisily. He saw the three behind him jump at his sudden movement but it did little to satisfy the need to beat the problems away.

“Kili, why didn’t you say anything?” He heard Bilbo asked breathlessly.

“I, I didn’t know what to say or - or do, I was scared,” Kili spoke.

No one spoke for awhile, the rain grew heavier and finally when Thorin couldn’t take it any longer, he stormed off in the direction of his apartment. Once inside he grabbed the first thing he could and flung it at the wall, in this case was a old bottle of whiskey. It gave a satisfying crash but not enough to sate his anger and soothe his despair. He threw his lamp next then another empty bottle.

“Thorin—look, I know you’re angry, but you need to calm down,” Bilbo said behind him. He whipped around to see the teacher standing in the doorway with Fili at his back. His emotions got the better of him and he charged Bilbo and grabbed him by his shirt.

“This is all your fault, if you hadn’t let them go out on their own!” He yelled at the shorter man, giving a firm shake, “This wouldn’t have happened!”

Bilbo’s face remained impassive but he cowed in the face of Thorin’s fury.“Thorin, we’re going to attract unwanted attention and that’s the very last thing we need,” Bilbo said sternly, “Right now, let's just sit down and figure out what we are going to do because frankly you’re upsetting your nephews.”

Thorin huffed but looked back out into the hallway and deflated as he saw Kili standing in the hallway. The same exact place as he left him, now some shades paler and eyes wider. His determination to know his fate, however, reflected his courage. Kili bravely took a step forward.

“Kili,” He called and watched the boy flinch before walking towards him seemingly on autopilot.

Thorins heart broke as he watched Kili, who was now sporting a heavy limp. Guilt riding hard on his conscience he strode over and pulled the boy to his chest. Thorin didn’t often believe in religion but what little he did was gone. If any God was still out there they didn’t care and if not they had abandoned Thorin. Kili was crying now and Thorin felt the tears on his cheeks. He looked up at Bilbo who was standing awkwardly in the corner and to Fili only a step away, his expression pained.

He pulled Kili to an arm’s length and looked him in the eye, “We’ll figure this out, I promise,” He stated and turned to Fili, “Right now I need you two to go to your room, I need to think.”

“Yes uncle,” Kili wiped the back of his sleeve over his face drying up the tears. Without further word he shuffled toward the separate bedroom, most likely to cry more and away from an audience.

Fili started to follow but faltered in the last second and instead came to stand next to Thorin. “What if he’s like me?” He suggested quietly.

“Fili, as much as I want to believe that, we have to be realistic about this,” he gritted as he straightened out.

“But what if, and if not, what are we going to do, shoot him?” Fili uttered softly.

“Fili!” Thorin gasped, horrified at the thought. Of all the things that he had thought, the mere idea that he’d have to dispatch Kili was the last.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if he is—you know—infected, I want to do it,” Fili stated, his voice trailing off in the end. “I—he’s my brother, and I don’t want to see him suffer,” he finished standing up straight and looking Thorin right in the face before turning around and followed his brother into the bedroom.

Thorin stood in shock for awhile, he sometimes forgot that Fili and Kili were born after the outbreak and had never truly known peace. The reality that if someone got bit, be if family or otherwise, there was only one action and that was to kill. Fili was only fifteen, for Maker’s sake. What kind of sick twisted God left a world in ruin and the young to contemplate on the possibility of murder.  

“He’s right you know,” said a voice and Thorin had to will his eyes from the door that was causing his mental breakdown.

“What?” Thorin whispered.

“Fili—he’s right. What if?” The voice said - Bilbo it turned out to be.

“If what?” Thorin repeated, his brain unable to catch up.

Bilbo sighed and gently guided Thorin to sit at the cracked table in the would-be dinning room. Slowly, he peeled the soaked jacket off of him and set about clanking round the kitchen, muttering under his breath about things Thorin didn’t understand.

Suddenly a warm mug was placed in front of him. He looked up at Bilbo who had his eyebrows knitted together in worry. His cardigan was sodden beyond saving, but the teacher made no move to remove it yet, despite how chilled it must have made him. He seemed far more concerned about them, it seems.

“You look terrible,” Bilbo observed with a shake of his head.

“You, why are you here?” Thorin muttered a bit more angry than he meant.

“I don’t have to be, and frankly I don’t want to be, but here I am,” the curly haired man said tersely.

Whatever little bit of anger was left departed in a gush of emotions that left him wrung out and debilitated. He opened his mouth to speak but his whole throat felt like dust, it took him three tries before he managed “So, we wait?”

Bilbo sat across the table from him in a mixture of dismay and concern, setting his mug down slowly to stare blankly at it. He looked as tired as Thorin felt. Slowly he looked up and met his gaze and gave a small lift of his shoulders.

“We wait.”    

 

* * *

 

“To the edge of the universe and back again, endure and survive.”

-Ellie, The Last of Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Ewe:** Hi there, we hope you enjoyed chapter one. You might have noticed how we changed the rebel group “Fireflies” to “Firedrakes” and we hope to get you a design of that soon enough! We decided to go with some aspects that the conceptual team had on The Last of Us in this plot. Very early in development, Tess was actually the main antagonist for the game, who pursued Joel and Ellie across America. Safic and I decided to go through with this approach so our journey will not be entirely the same as you might expect. It’ll have some elements taken from both the story of The Hobbit and The Last of Us. 
> 
> But just a friendly reminder: you don’t need to have played The Last of Us to understand the fic. We only hope we’re coherent enough that you get what you need to know.


	2. Escaping Quarantine

 

Bilbo huffed under his breath as he clapped his hands, shaking the chalk dust off his fingers. Life had gone on as normal, well, as normal as it could. He had gone home after the rather perilous incident, and taken a long soak in lukewarm water heated by fire and an old kettle. It has been three days since he’d last seen Fili and Kili, though. They hadn’t come back to class, and Bilbo had his own fair suspicions it was Thorin who didn’t trust him around his boys anymore. Or it was something more pernicious and damaging than what he hoped.

If it was the former, he hoped Fili and Kili would have sought him out anyway, but perhaps that was selfish thinking on his part. It’s not like they’d known him very long, and surely not as long as Thorin, who had probably known the boys since they were born. But he liked to think he’d drawn them in and shared at least a decent relationship, a connection. They were good boys and had a great deal more optimism than others their age, and they reminded him of his own nephew.

If it was the latter, and it really was something detrimental, well, Bilbo didn’t want to think of it. Besides, he figured he would have heard of it regardless, someone turning wasn’t something kept under wraps. It was impossible to keep secrets anymore. It just wasn’t done. Everything you own is displayed to the world. You kept what really mattered on you or you let it go.

“Enough worrying.” Bilbo muttered. “It’s probably nothing and maybe it is better. I don’t see them anymore.” He finished ridding himself of the last of the chalk with a firm nod to himself.

Or worse yet? His brain unhappily persisted, maybe Kili had turned after the crucial twenty-four hours? Maybe Thorin had had to off him? Or Fili had tried and only gotten killed in the process and they’re both gone? He broke out in a cold sweat at the thought. They were only kids, just kids, oh goodness, no.

Bilbo slammed a book down on a desk causing a women to jump just outside his door. No! He would not think like that. They were both okay.

 

_It was three in the morning -or so he guessed- when Kili stumbled out of the bedroom. Thorin was sitting on the couch (after having been pacing for hours) his leg jumping up and down. Bilbo was in a blissful half asleep state on a broken chair leaning against the window. The rain a comforted sound against the glass. Both of them perked up as Kili entered the room and took a seat down next to Thorin._

_“Fili fell asleep, and I didn’t want to be alone” was all he muttered._

_Bilbo had never seen so much relief than the look Thorin gave his nephew. It was if all the pain of the past 20 years shed off him.  The older man drew Kili in and didn’t look to be letting go anytime soon._

_Feeling out of place in the intimate moment, he left silently._

 

The rain had fallen all through the night before, leaving the air damp and bleak all day. Coat in hand, Bilbo was almost ready to leave for the day. In his haste, he very nearly left his ID and had to double back. The rain that had blissfully left them for the day returned, and he could hear it loudly on the metal sheet that covered part of the classroom’s roof. The large droplets defying loud. Bilbo looked out the window as he passed his desk once again, idly observing the students running home or off to go who-knew-where.

Bilbo narrowed his eyes as worry began to surge again leaving a bitter taste in the back of his mouth and shook his head with a sigh, causing the glass to mist and becloud the outside world. Taking a deep breath in he gave another sigh taking amusement as the window fogged up and began to collect the condensation. He pulled back and slipped off his gloves and began to draw random geometric shapes. The mundane motion calmed him—if at least placating his apprehension. Halfway through an acute angle he caught sight of Kili.

Wiping the rest off with his sleeve quickly, he stood still to watch. The boy was casting glances behind him and carrying a rather large paper bag. His shoulders were a rigid line of wariness. Bilbo’s eyebrows knitted together as the boy rounded a corner and out of his line of sight. Well it answered one of his questions. But why was he alone and very obviously not in school? Thorin could be keeping Kili out of public eye just so his leg could heal up, but that wouldn't explain him running around outside.

“And that also wouldn’t explain Fili’s absence.” Bilbo muttered.

“Did you say something, Mister Baggins?”

Bilbo jumped and flipped around to see Mister Graeg standing at the door an odd look on his face as he studied him. The elder man was dressed as muted as the skies, from his slacks to his woolen tie. It seemed to be his favorite choice in palette, since Bilbo rarely saw him in much else. He was suddenly reminded back to that day Mister Graeg approached him for an entirely different purpose other than teaching. The reminder made him cold and uncertain, like snow melting down his back.

“I was just wondering where Fili was today is all.” Bilbo hastily said, hoping he hadn’t waited too long to reply. “It’s not like him to skip classes.” he added.

“No it’s not.” Graeg agreed, seeming to inspect him before leaving.

Bilbo stared after Graeg for several minutes after his departure, and something guarded settled heavily in his stomach. Something wasn’t entirely right—and  he had always had a sense for these things. Fili had taken a long time to open up to Bilbo about his immunity. Now he was starting to consider if it was causing more harm than good. He had long since wondered if the government had kept bugged devices in the classroom just to make sure the teachers weren’t misbehaving.

He wouldn’t put it past them. They set the syllabus and the curriculum. There wasn’t clearance for creativity in a classroom, and while Bilbo didn’t particularly endear himself to these methods, it wasn’t until recently he started to question it. They taught the children the basis of world knowledge and how to shoot, but they taught the bare minimum on how to survive outside the wall. It was boxed in and unmoral and really up to the faculty to teach what they preached from printed black and white. If that was the case, it wasn’t a large leap for them to know about Fili.

That wasn’t right though. Fili had spun his tale weeks ago - surely they would have moved faster to clamp down on anyone with immunity. So if the the uppers didn’t know, where were they? Why were they hiding?  

“Shoot.” Bilbo muttered and fled his classroom, almost grateful to tears for the afterschool hours and lack of personnel on campus. If he had put those boys into danger again he just simply would not forgive himself.

The roads around the school were deserted, as was to be expected on a Rations Day. The twisted corners and empty alleyways spoke volumes of the recent cut on food. Bilbo worried that it would soon start a riot; if the people revolted not even the firedrakes could stand against the mass of angry, hungry civilians, and Bilbo didn’t want to be around when that happened. He had already witnessed what hungry and desperate people were capable of.

The main street; however, was packed with people. The ration line zig-zagged back and forth across the street and even reached out into alleyways. Government soldiers patrolled and overlooked the lines, holding heavy artillery and looked very frightening in their helmets. They always dressed like this on ration day. Bilbo always thought it made them less human and more machine—though that may have been the point—to look apathetic so that no one would cross them or be shot trying.

Bilbo dodged the crowd and soldiers, jumping on his toes to avoid being trod on by anyone. The mass of people disoriented him greatly and he couldn’t help but double back a few times to find the right street that would lead him to Thorin’s apartment.

When he finally did find the right road that led up to Thorin’s complex, was crawling in officials. Rusted barricades circumcised the building and block, a clear warning for those who didn’t have business in the area were to stay away. He straightened up and with more confidence than he felt, Bilbo walked past them trying to act as much as he could that, yes, he lived there. And no, they didn’t scare him.

It was four doors from Thorin’s apartment that he was stopped.

“What are you doing here?” A faceless soldier asked, putting himself between Bilbo and Thorin’s door.

“I’m here to see my students.” Bilbo said honestly but purposefully. “They haven't been at school and I’m looking to give them their school work.”

“That won’t be necessary, Teach. The boys are being arrested.”

“Arrested!” Bilbo parroted in shock, “Whatever for?”

“They were seen in a condemned building and need to be scanned and put into military custody.” The soldier replied.

Bilbo took a quick step back trying desperately not to look as frightened as he was. If the boys were seen, had anyone seen Thorin or himself? Obviously not, as he wasn’t being cuffed. It was hard to believe though. Two adult men passing unnoticed? They weren’t exactly mum about the whole rescue. And Thorin wasn’t exactly the quietest trotter he’s met.

Before the soldier could question him further, he was saved from an awkward predicament by a voice around the corner, “They’re not here,” before he was pushed aside as soldiers rushed past him leaving him alone and very worried.

Bilbo took a few moments to catch his breath before diving around and into the apartment. It looked about the same as it had before, a few ransacked drawers and shelves from the military, but otherwise untouched. It wasn’t as though Bilbo was looking for anything in particular, but he still searched the place. In some fantasy notion he was searching for a note as to where they had left to, or a clue like in the mystery novels he used to read in high school. In a last ditch effort, he applied Basil Rathbone’ science of deduction to piece it together. but he still came up dry.

What he did find shoved under the boys’ bed were the walkie talkies. He picked them up sat down looking at them in his hands. So they just skipped town? That’s all there was to it? Bilbo sighed and listened to light drizzle rattling on the windows. What did it matter? People disappeared all the time. Some without notice.

In the middle of his dispirited thoughts, Bilbo was suddenly shaken out of his reverie by the sound of rummaging from the next room. Startled at first, but then indignant. The family that had lived here had just been run out of their room and already there was a sacking going on? Unbelievable! Blood rushed to his head with more than just vertigo as Bilbo stood up, ready to give this thief a piece of his mind and noisily slammed the door open. He had been ready to spook the vagabonds off, shouting just loud enough to get the soldier’s attentions and they hadn’t left for too long yet.

He burst into the next room, Thorin’s (his mind supplied inappropriately and distractedly), and let out a wordless exclamation as he met eyes with another man. “Hey!” Bilbo huffed, “You don’t belong here, please leave!”

But the thief did nothing but stare, unimpressed, up at the teacher, with a scoff, “And you do? Please.” he shook his head, “Swear it, these scrounging scamps are getting more green behind the ears these days.”

Bilbo sputtered indignantly, “Scamp!” He repeated, voice high, “I am no scrounger or a scamp! I’ve never stolen a thing in my life! You’re the one who is going through my friend’s drawers like a common thief!” Of course, when insulted, he would often put a foot in his own mouth. First, it was never a good idea to anger anyone nowadays. Second, he and Thorin could hardly be called acquaintances, let alone friends, the first and last time they saw one another wasn’t exactly under cordial circumstances.

The other man straightened out, and Bilbo sweated to see that the man towered over him. He didn’t back down though, and narrowed his eyes with a cross of his arms, “Well?”

“You said you were a friend?” The other man asked, flipping a long braid over his shoulder. He was momentarily distracted by the rope of red.  “He doesn’t have a lot of friends.”

“Uh,” Bilbo frowned, realizing his white lie wasn’t fooling anyone. He tried the honest approach, “Well, I’m a recent acquaintance of Thorin’s, anyways. So w-who are you?”

The other man perked at Thorin’s name, and relaxed to give Bilbo a once over. “I see. The name’s Nori. Sort of a family friend. And when I say family, I mean my brother is his brother’s friend”

Bilbo immediately drew back in surprise before he sobered quickly. Family friend indeed! Surely he knew what had happened! He looked around and came closer, his voice lowering to a hush, “Then...do you know where they are? Are they alright?”

Nori (Bilbo was still unsure if he was really a thief or not) frowned in suspicion, “What’s it to you, stranger?”

He pursed his lip and sighed, deciding to let the false pretenses slip, “I’m Fili and Kili’s teacher. I just, I just want to know if they’re alright. They haven’t come to school, and when I got here they were already gone.”

They dissolved into silence and Bilbo watched as something in Nori’s distrustful eyes fell away. The thief stepped back, crossing his arms. “Follow me.” He tilted a head towards the window.

“Pardon?” Bilbo asked, and without hesitation fell into step behind him. Nori looked amused by his naive trust, but he didn’t seem to know Bilbo was still on guard. It was good that he was unassuming. It meant he had an upper advantage.

The red-haired man took a gloved hand to the window’s latch and pulled. “Alrighty then, through here.”

“Through the window?!” Bilbo hissed, drawing back. “You do realize that there’s no one in the hallway, yes? This is completely unnecessary.”

“You never know, we could be listened in on right now. And there are eyes on the entrance. Better safe than sorry, better moving than still.” Nori insisted. “Unless...you don’t want to know where they are.”

Bilbo, unfortunately, knew he was a very desperate and willing fish here. “Alright. Fine,” he conceded unhappily.

“Me first.” Nori said, much to his relief. He didn’t fancy being the first to climb out only to find Nori pushing him over the edge. He’d much rather have the reassurance of no one at his back, thank you very much. He watched as the taller man shoved both legs out first, his hands grasping the latch. Gracefully, he leaped, his legs bending to brace his fall at the gravel below.

Pinching his face in an unsightly grimace, Bilbo primly lifted a leg through the window sill with a sniff. “It’s like the man never dusted, I swear,” he commented and ignored Nori’s startled chuckle from below. Ah yes, below. It was about a story’s drop. His throat convulsed as he swallowed nervously.

“I’ll catch you.” He heard the other man offer at his hesitance.

“No thank you.” Bilbo declined firmly, remembering the last time he was offered help. He had quite enough of men trying to manhandle him up and down tall structures to last him a week.

Inhaling and exhaling, Bilbo copied Nori’s kick off and straightened out his legs to brace his fall. Unfortunately, the impact was so jarring that Bilbo bent prematurely, and when he straightened out, he stumbled forward straight into Nori’s arms. He stammered in embarrassment, pushing away and ignored the other man’s shit-eating grin.

“This way, scamp-o,” Nori said as he waved for him to follow. Deciding to ignore the offending nickname, Bilbo chased after his acquaintance. “Two nights ago Thorin approached me and asked for my help. He wanted a safe way out of the QZ, and wanted it as soon as possible.” Nori led them into a back alley, easily pulling himself over a barricade and watched on amusedly as Bilbo struggled to scramble after him. “I didn’t quite care to ask for a reason, most people want out of Quarantine Zone so it wasn’t an entirely uncommon request.”

“And are you—oof,” Bilbo, momentarily winded himself as he pulled himself over another barricade, struggling to keep pace with Nori’s more erratic trails. He continued his line of questioning thorough light panting, “Are you some sort of expert on that?” Bilbo hadn’t exerted himself so much as he had in these last few days. He had a feeling it was something he would be forced to become accustomed with, however.

Nori lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug, “You could say that.” he says pulling a long curved knife out of its sheathe (much to Bilbo’s alarm). As the thief began using it to pick at his nails, Bilbo warily forced himself to relax, “Anyway, I got him and his kiddos out. But we both completely forgot to get his gas mask. Amateur mistake on my part, so I doubled back to get it at his request.” Nori grimaced, “Only...it was gone before I got here. Those soldiers took what was left behind as you saw, greedy bastards.”

Bilbo nodded, a furrow to his brow. It was near impossible to survive out of QZ without them, and he fretted at the thought of Thorin out there without one. Fili and Kili could easily go without, being immune to the bacterium as they were, but gas masks were incredibly hard to salvage for the common folk. It was the government’s way to keep them proverbially under thumbs. If everyone had masks, then people would be more liable to walk out of Quarantine Zone willy nilly. Masks were only given to those who truly needed it.

Someone … Bilbo realized with a shock that jolted his whole body, someone like him. Schools had certain cautionary drills they performed in cases of emergencies. They practiced for the worst case scenarios, military drills they performed every month. Should spores be found on campus, students were to be ushered into the cafeteria, and several faculty members were to fan out to investigate the area in their issued masks. Seeds of plans began to take root in the forefront of his mind. This could actually work...if Nori seemed willing to cooperate with him.

Nori soon caught on to Bilbo’s distraction, and they slowed to a stop, “Hey.” He called back with a frown, “What’s up with you?”

“I think,” Bilbo finally spoke, head lifting, “I can help.”

“Really.” Nori said simply, not entirely convinced.

He took the lead, gesturing for the other man to follow and explained the school drills very calmly, easily slipping into his instructor’s tone, “You see, if we can get into the faculty locker at my school, there are supplies in there that could last Thorin and the boys weeks.”

“That,” Nori began slowly with suspicion, “Is a mighty generous offer. You could lose your job for this, I’m certain.”

Bilbo only shrugged easily, “It’s really not a problem. I worry for them. And you’re the only one who’s in contact with them.”

Nori searched his face, even to go as far as to get real close and began to ponder him as though maybe he’d somehow find something there. If it wasn’t for the close proximity of Nori that caused Bilbo’s hackles to be brought up he might have caught the brief flashes of ache on the thief's face.

Be that as it may, Nori internal debated to decide on something at last and grinned at Bilbo’s uncertain expression. “You remind me of my brother.” He said crossing his arms, “Well then scamp, lead on.”

The two made their way back towards the checkpoint, then Nori separated from him. Bilbo forced himself not to be too worried. He had more to lose than Bilbo if he didn’t show up. The soldiers already knew his face now under the guise of a honest teacher and he only hopped it would hold out. Nodding stiffly as he flashed his identification, the teacher forced himself not to wait around as he passed the checkpoint. Bilbo never stayed around long in checkpoints - no one did. Still, he couldn’t help but fret about Nori. How in the world did the man find ways over checkpoints? He suspected he would find out soon enough though.

When he reached the entrance of the school he was startled out of his musing of Nori materialized at his side again. “Alright, on we go, scamp.”

“I have a name you know,” he grumbled back in irritation.

“I wouldn’t have known, since you never gave it.” Nori’s lips twitched. “And you seemed to respond well enough to scamp.”

Bilbo sighed raggedly in exasperation as they trotted quietly past the faculty lounge. There was no need to worry for cameras around campus. The government hadn’t cared to set up such precious technology around shantytown campuses, and most security like that was only used at places that mattered, like ration houses, pharmacies or the entrances and exits of QZs. The faculty locker room was empty, and Bilbo -after groping around for his keys a bit longer than he meant to- unlocked the storage locker. Nori courteously held the door open for him with flourish.

As soon as light hit the contents Nori began to scan the locker, focusing on Bilbo’s papers and faculty ID’s. “Bilbo Baggins” He introduced himself curtly. As they approached the biggest locker in the back Bilbo only then saw the flaw to his plan. Nori was considerably taller, broader and stronger than he was. Apart from his knife Bilbo only had one other line of defence. He hoped he didn’t have to use it. Only few were trusted the combination to the fail safe and it was just their luck Bilbo was one of them.

When he swung open the heavy steel door it was Nori who let out a low whistle.

Bilbo himself had only seen what was inside once, and that was a few months ago when he was first inducted as a staff member. But he understood Nori’s reaction, he’d felt the same way. There were folded bags lining the wall of the locker, but the amount of food and supplies was near staggering. Protein bars by the boxes, nonperishable canned fruits and beans piled in neat stacks in the corner. It was easily the most food anyone has seen in one place that wasn’t a ration house. Bottled water came by the dozens wrapped in plastic. The astounding surplus of survival gear was a visual miracle. Rope, torches, matches, bedrolls were there by the bundles. Most importantly, the gas masks hung on metal pegs.

Nori immediately stepped closer, fingers obviously itching, but Bilbo stood in his way and Nori suddenly found himself face to face with a nozzle. It’s been years since he’s been forced to use his pepper spray but he did not tremble as he held the pink tube up to the other man’s face. Bilbo’s thumb had flicked the safety to the side and his finger was only a push of a button away from burning Nori’s eyes to unpleasant oblivion. The taller man’s eyes narrowed.

Bilbo watched as Nori’s face twisted into resigned betrayal, “I should have known there was a catch. Alright Mister Baggins, name your price.”

Unable to believe his own ballsy attitude, he held his head high despite the uncertainty of his own plan. The shorter man licked his lips, staying silent and gaging Nori carefully before speaking, “I’ll let you take whatever you need, within reason of course, if you’ll take me to Fili and Kili. All the way.”

Nori’s face slackened in disbelief, “You’re kidding.”

“No,” Bilbo assured, “Perfectly serious.”

They stared at one another for a tense moment, Nori’s silence was telling. Bilbo huffed in irritation at the lack of response, “Look, you’re the only one who knows where they are. I just want to know if they’re okay. I also want to see them for myself. Is that so strange?”

Nori’s lips twisted, “Well. Yes, if you’re asking for some honesty here. Why in the Maker would you go so far for two kids? Do you want something from them?” He added, as if to remind him, “They’re not even yours.”

“They are mine.” Bilbo said firmly, “They’re my students. And they’re just children. And if Thorin thinks he can drag two kids across dreadfully uninhabitable terrain by himself ill-prepared as he is, than he has another thing coming.”

If Nori’s face could get anymore slack, Bilbo would have worried his jaw might have fallen off, “You’re absolutely shitting me. You intend to go with them. Do you have any idea what you’re doing? What they’re doing?”

“Yes.” Bilbo lied. Oh Maker, what in the world was he thinking? Nori was right, this was absolutely beyond him. His Took side reared up with vicious vengeance, years and years of pushing his courage to a quiet murmur suddenly roared loud and clear in his ears. The need to protect and save, to strengthen his resolve throw caution to the wind without consequence. It was like a running theme for the week, anyway. “Listen, do we have a deal or not?”

Nori ran a ragged hand over his face, “How are you not sure I won’t just agree, take your stuff and leave you behind? Listen, Mister Teacher, you don’t belong out there, you’re too naive, too trusting. You wouldn’t last.”

Bilbo refused to budge. “I’ve lasted this long, I wasn’t born to this world - I fought my way here, and I, well, I’m hoping you won’t betray me. I can only trust you’re a man of your word.”

But the thief only groaned. “Oh you’ve got to be fucking with me.” Nori complained before defeat settled in his shoulders. He gave Bilbo a more appraising look and appeared grudgingly impressed by his moxie, “Alright. Fine. I’ll take you to them. But it’s really up to Thorin if he wants me to take you and shit.”

Finally, he lowered the mace, flicking the pink tube’s safety back on. “Good. Now let’s get packing.”

They’ve already wasted so much time threatening each other so both scrambled to unravel the bags, throwing in as much they could carry. When Bilbo finally buckled two bedrolls to his pack he turned to Nori, who had just finished fastening a roll of rope to his second pack. Bilbo said nothing as he saw Nori pull four more water bottles out. He wondered briefly if he had family of his own that he needed to provide for.

It was as they were heading out the door that Bilbo came to a sudden epiphany. He turned to Nori who was currently checking out a granola bar with enthusiastic bliss. “You know, I haven't seen one of these in years.” He noticed Bilbo’s expression and his brow furrowed, “Now what’s got your panties in a twist?” He asked.

Bilbo hesitated before lifting his bag, “How are we going to get through checkpoint with these things?” He commented helplessly, “They’re not exactly subtle.”

Nori rolled his eyes and strode ahead, “Leave that to me, you really don’t think the checkpoints are the only way to get from zone to zone do you?”

“Well I knew there were other ways but I’ve, well, I’ve never used them.” Bilbo said following after Nori.

“Well you’re about to, and to get where we need to go we’re going to have to leave QZ for a bit, it’s a far stretch from where we want to be if you want to see your students.”

Bilbo sighed and resigned himself to his fate. The two of them trudged along for awhile jumping out windows and crossing rooftops as was Nori’s style till suddenly, Bilbo wasn’t sure where they were anymore. They had left school grounds and were closer to zone six than he had ever been. Was it really so easy to transfer zones under the government’s eye? Or was Nori just really good at this? Bilbo was likely to believe it was the latter.

“So, pink huh?” Nori commented as they climbed an old escalator in a run down office building.

Bilbo tripped on a step. “Yes, well, it was the only one I could find.” He muttered darkly. This wasn’t the first time he’d been teased about his pepper spray and Maker knows it wouldn’t be his last.

“Hey, wasn’t trying to insult, just commenting.” Nori responded holding up his hands. “You make do with what you can. Yeah?” He said turning back around.

And wasn’t that the fact of the day. There were no luxury items anymore. Clean good tasting water was a thing of the past. Shoes that fit were rare. They lived in a completely different world now.

Nori led him through an old office stopping to reach into his jacket and pulled out an old torch. “You got one on you?” He asked.

Bilbo nodded, making sure the flashlight was attached to the backpack and flicked the switch on. The already dank room lit up, and Bilbo was left unsettled by the old bodies on the ground, half decomposed and the litany of bullet shells on the ground.

“What happened?” Bilbo gasped.

“Dunno. Whatever happened, it was long before I started using this tunnel.” Nori shrugged. “Come here, I need your help moving this.” he ordered and Bilbo scrambled up on top of a conference desk to help Nori move a large wooden panel. Once it was out of the way, Nori disappeared through it. Had Bilbo not been looking at him, he might not have known Nori had gone through.

“Nori.” Bilbo called.

“Over here, Scamp, it’s clear,” came the lone muffled voice.

“Right.” Bilbo said. “Well here goes nothing.” And in one swift movement he quickly clambered through the hole. As it turned out, the other side was the next floor up or just another building. Nori gripped his arm and hauled him up dusting off Bilbo’s arms.

“See? No harm, no foul.” Nori grinned and turned on his heel and began walking down the dark hallway, his torch beam the only source of light. Bilbo huffed but followed along.

“So how do you know Thorin?” Bilbo asked, the quiet atmosphere slowly grinding on his nerves. “Er, you said family friend earlier. Well, sort of a family friend.”

Nori ignored the quiet whatever that meant mutter that came from behind him. “It’s just as I said, my older brother and his were friends, part of the Firedrakes or something.” He idly comments waving his hand about. “Nothing too intimate, mind. My brother and I don’t really see eye to eye, but hey, that’s what sibs are for, right?”

“Wouldn’t really know, I was an only child.” Bilbo replied neutrally. He’s far too old to have the growing-up-without-siblings sentimentality by now.

“More the power to you.” Nori said and Bilbo sensed that was to be the end of the conversation. Nori didn’t seem to keen to reveal more.

“You said Thorin had a brother? He still in the QZ or—” Bilbo asked, leaving the ending open to deliberation.

“Dead? Nah, left the QZ long ago. They were good friends, left on decent terms, but one went one way, one went another.” Nori said before coming to a stop.

“Where do we go from here?” Bilbo asked. They’d come to a fork in the hallway, one led downstairs and the other into more rooms.

“You ask a lot of questions,” Nori stated flatly before striding downstairs.

Bilbo took that as his cue to keep his mouth shut. The air around them began to grow damp and humid, as though they were heading down well. The walls began to grow green with moss and lichen, and Bilbo found the carpet under them soggy.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Nori swore. “It was clear down here last time I came through.” He muttered, “We’re going to have to walk through some water, you okay with that?” He called back.

Bilbo nodded. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice anyway. Shining his torch down the hallway, he noticed the whole thing slanted, and had fallen into the floor below and was filling with water. Nori was testing the edge on the left hand side and motioned for Bilbo to follow.

The water was lightly lapping around his knees halfway across, the socks on his feet squishing in his old sneakers, leaving him feeling uncomfortable and washed out. Bilbo was suddenly glad for the flashlight tied to his bag pointing up so that he didn’t have to see the water. Even in the dim light he swore he could see bodies and other unsavory things floating nearby.

“Alright, through this way,” Nori gestured, opening a door and backing up into it. Bilbo followed and while the water didn’t dissipate, there was solid ground. “Welcome to the outside.” Nori spoke and Bilbo had only the quick warning Nori’s torch flicking off before the whole room was bathed in light.

Nori laughed as Bilbo had to blink out the sudden pain in his eyes. On the way out the door Bilbo glared at the other man who didn’t bother to hide the look of pride on his face.

Truth be told, Bilbo didn’t know what he expected on the outside, more infected maybe, some dark and desolate apocalyptic world, but really it was just more green. A lot of green. Ferns climbed walls and rubble alike. Over rusted lamp posts wore big leaves that fanned out and filtered verdant light, bathing all that laid below in a soft green hue. Big bluestems came in droves, and they all towered massively over him. Everything that the military would have cut back had overgrown. It left the world somehow hauntingly beautiful.

“We won’t be out long, but we just have to get through there.” Nori said appearing at his side to point at a old looking apartment building.

He let Nori lead, letting the fresh air and green surround him. It didn’t smell like thousands of people that never bathed. He expected horrible scents, perhaps even fungus. Somehow, the world outside of the walls was fresher, the sunlight brighter. The waterlogged feeling that came with rain and no umbrella made him feel more alive. In the distance, he could see flooded streets, but the water looked almost neon in the yellow light, the tops skimmed with vibrant algae. He remembered a lake just like that in Frogmorton. A ache in his chest sprang up as he thought about his own hometown, what it looked like now, if it was overgrown like a jungle just like this.

He heard Nori swear up ahead and looked up to see him biting his bottom lip and flexing his neck in a desperate form of frustration. Looking on ahead Bilbo could see why, spores, lots of them, they were pouring out of the windows floors above and leaking out the bottom of the double doors leading in.

“I’m assuming it’s useless asking if there is a way around?” Bilbo reflected.

Nori didn’t say anything but pulled out the his own gas mask.

Bilbo sighed and pulled out one of the ones brought from the school pulling the straps tight and fitting it around his face. “Well, here goes nothing.”

“Hold on, what weapons do you have on you?” Nori asked holding his arm out. “These weren't here last time, so I’m guessing it will be mostly runners, maybe a few clickers.”

“I have a knife and a Glock, standard edition for all faculty members.” Bilbo said pulling out the said weaponry. Though he wasn’t one for violence, his ‘42 was small and fit easily in his grip.

“You don’t happen to have a silencer? You fire a Glock in there and all the clickers in the goddamn county will be after us.” The thief sidled from foot to foot, looking at the infected apartment building.

“No, not much use honestly, I think they give us these mostly as an intimidation device not for actual use.”

“Do you even know how to shoot the thing?” Nori rounded on him wide eyed.

“I’ve shot.” Bilbo said slowly trailing off. He was very unwilling to share how he learned with a stranger, however. “I’m not completely useless.”

It seemed like the situation might have been worse than Bilbo thought because Nori didn’t offer even the smallest of teasing. He only nodded before strapping on his own gas mask and motioned him to follow, “Stealthy it is then.”

They began walking forward in a crouch until their backs were against the wall. The door was ajar, but already the air was thick in spores. Nori took the lead and slipped inside. Bilbo waited with bated breath, and after no sounds of infected or runners, he slipped inside. The room was dark, but Nori had his torch on, sweeping it across the room. The spores colored the world in a golden-green hue, making everything around them seen surreal.

Nori nodded to him and kneeled in front of the door, slowly pushing it open and waiting every few inches, until finally it was apparent that they were in no immediate danger. Bilbo followed right on Nori’s heels. He could appreciate the softness in the other man’s steps that almost rivalled his own. Not many had the natural knack of walking in silence. They trecked up stairs and through numerous hallways. Multiple times Bilbo could have sworn he could hear people talking but chalked it up to the muffled sound of his own footsteps and the thundering of his own heart. He tried to keep his breathing quiet but in the confined space of his mask, Bilbo felt he might as well have been gasping aloud.

Nori stopped suddenly, placing a hand on Bilbos arm, shaking his head at him and nodding in the direction of the room adjacent to them. Plants thrived in here as well. Just inside and past some buttonbushes, Bilbo could make out figures. Some were standing still but a few were walking in circles. No clicking sounds, however, so they weren’t clickers. These people were obviously newly infected. They still had a range of vocal ability, and some were uttering words, probably left over from cognitive brain activity. He could hear random words intermixed with grunting. The one closest to them was talking in seemingly random patterns, a hello and car, but none were coherent enough to form sentences. When its mouth opened, Bilbo could see the horribly rotten and jagged teeth.

This was the stage that Bilbo hated the most; they weren't disfigured by the cordyceps yet and still looked mostly human. They had full range of motion and the only outwardly telling signs of infection were bloodshot eyes and the wrinkling of the skin and certain areas where the pores were opening up to grow spores that would soon cover their face.

Nori tightened his hand around Bilbo’s arm and pointed to the door down the hallway that led to the building’s stairwell. He nodded his head in understanding, and waited as Nori crawled down the hallway, stopping every so often to watch the infected before moving on.

In the first few inches Bilbo felt the floor under his footing grow soft and he looked down only to very nearly choking in his mask, the ground was covered in rotting pieces of bioluminescent fungi, intermixed with the human DNA it created a almost skin colored vine that worked itself up the walls. It was liking the body that had died to the create the spores around them had collapse in this hallway.

Bilbo took a deep breath, his heart beat rapidly growing in his throat. The gas mask he had on was loudly emitting his every breath like a loud speaker. He tried desperately to calm down his breathing but it only caused it to worsen, looking up ahead he saw Nori next to the door wildly trying to get his attention and waving for him to come over. Bilbo couldn’t see his face but he nodded and as quickly as he dared made his way over to the thief.

As soon as Bilbo got close enough Nori pulled him into the hallway and shut the door behind him quietly, pulling an old hammer from the a tool box and locking the handles together. The redhead turned to Bilbo and gripped his shoulders leaning as close as his mask would allow.

“You okay?” He asked quietly.

Bilbo nodded brusquely, not trusting his voice. He couldn’t remember if he’s ever had the opportunity to touch fungus, after all. It was probably the first time he’s seen it so close and personal, Bilbo could get used to many things, but that was one change he could live without. Nori didn’t press and began heading up the stairway. Doors lined the hallway some ajar but others had been sectioned off and barred by the government in the early stages of the virus.

Toward the end, were a few open doors, and light was streaming in. Bilbo breathed a sigh of relief. They were almost out, or so he hoped. Nori didn’t seem inclined to go further up so they trekked down the hallway. Nearing the end of it, Nori halted again and dropped down into a crouch, pulling Bilbo with him. Just barely through his mask, he could hear clicking. It was faint and it only sounded like one, but it was there. As they waited a single lone clicker shambled out of one of the doors at the end of the hallways. Silhouetted by the light, it clicked, and began to make its way toward them.

Nori quietly scooted around Bilbo, and in an instant, trapped Bilbo between himself and the wall, pulling out the knife Bilbo had seen earlier. The clicker came closer until Bilbo could see the fabric of his clothes. It was a teen, by the look of it. It was hard to tell when the face was so distorted, but he had a younger looking body. Nori flattened himself against Bilbo just as the clicker passed before leaping.

It happened in an instant. Nori jumped the thing from behind and knifed it in the neck, holding onto the body as he slowly lowered it to the ground. He let go and wiped his hands on his jeans, desperately trying to rid his hands of the fungi and other polluted substances.

Nori straightened and nodded to Bilbo, sheathing his knife. Bilbo let out the breath he’d been holding. He followed Nori to the lone apartment at the end of the hall that was now nothing more than half a living room before dropping off back onto the ground.

Bilbo peered over the edge and onto the floor below, there was a chest of drawers tipped over that wouldn’t be a far fall. He slid onto the floor and dropped down onto it, careful to make sure nothing else was in the room with him. Nori followed right after. They surveyed their surroundings and Nori spent a minute or two before cracking the window and jumping out to the world beyond.

Once outside they ran a few streets down before collapsing on a nearby barricade. Bilbo peeled off his mask wiping the sweat off his face and taking deep breaths.

“Well that was certainly a detour I really don’t want to repeat.” Nori commented taking a swig from one of the stolen water bottles. He nearly downed the thing before handing it off to Bilbo. “I am not looking forward to the return trip.”

“Do you have to go back through here?” Bilbo asked wearily.

“I don’t have to, but zone two has my face on record, I don’t want to be showing it around.” Nori said nonchalantly.

“Oh.” Bilbo sympathized, fiddling with the water bottle.

“Well enough of this, we wasted enough time here as it is. Thorin will be expecting me or else go off on his own.” Nori stated standing up and stretching.

Bilbo sighed but packed up his gas mask and trailed after the redhead. It was a quick walk from there to the wall that surrounded the QZ, Bilbo could just barely make out the tops of the station posts. He could also see the shadows of the guards patrolling the walkways of buildings. He was amazed and they could walk just literally under their noses.

“Just through here.” Nori motioned to the open grate that led back into the quarantine zone.

They slipped through and made their way in and out of tunnels and past people Bilbo hoped he would never meet again. This was a crowd that didn’t seem to take kindly to strangers but so long as he stuck to Nori’s side they didn’t seem to look at him twice. Nori, however, seemed to know everybody and exchanged pleasantries with nearly half of those they passed. Nori didn’t seem to be slowing down until they entered a old mall of sorts.

There was an old coffee shop on the corner, some generic local kind and Nori slipped in through the large window. Bilbo waited for a signal of some sort and waited as he heard hushed voices. Just as he was about to follow two heads popped out the window and with mirroring wide eyes.

“Bilbo!” Fili and Kili exclaimed together and the two boys immediately magnetized themselves to him.

“Did you really travel all the way here with Nori?” Fili asked, ever the sensible of the two.

“You went outside the wall?! Did you see infected?” Kili followed excitedly before he could answer. Bilbo grinned and let out a startled, relieved laugh, “Yes, yes, and unfortunately yes.”

“Aye, got your gas masks and your teach. If it weren’t for him I’d probably would have come back empty handed, too.”

The boys stared in awe at Bilbo who looked up just in time to see Nori and Thorin stand in front of him. Nori was more absorbed with his bags but Thorin was giving Bilbo an odd look. Bilbo couldn’t gage if he was apprehensive or confused but if there was a word that combined the two that would be it.

“Oh um.” Bilbo started now suddenly unsure of what to say, all the things he’d told Nori and the bravado he’d felt he suddenly lacked. The lies meant nothing in face of the truth. Was he really going to join Thorin, Fili and Kili? To be exiled from the QZ? To travel outside the walls? What did he have to go back to anyway? He was sure to be in trouble with the school by now. And going back was a prospect he didn’t want to do. What about his apartment? All he had on him was what he would take. There would be no turning back. His meager book collection would be gone. The few pictures that students over the years had given him would only be remembered in memory. The few friends he’d made never seen again. He would probably never go back. He would have to let everything go.

“I was wondering if I could go with you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Safic** : Hello! I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter! Ewe and I have worked super hard to make sure you can’t tell the difference in writing from one to the other. But that aside I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as we have. Nori was a fun character to add in and we are planning to have him back in later chapters. 
> 
> Cheers!


	3. Friction

 

_“You had best be careful out there.”_

Nori had been a good friend to Thorin and his family. They had formed a strong bond  long before the QZ’s walls were built. To say that leaving Nori behind didn’t leave an awful, guilty ache would have been a blatant lie. You lose people, and that’s all there was to it. There is no room for mourning the infected, the dead, and even the living.

Kili grips his hand, and Thorin looks down at their youngest nephew. “Are we going to be okay now?” he asks after having not said a word since they’d left Nori far behind them.

Thorin looks at his nephew with a scrunched up face. “I hope so, Kili,” he starts, “but I can’t promise we’ll be safe.”

The boy nods solemnly, and lets go of Thorin’s hand to jog ahead. Fili gives Thorin a half smile as he passed and nudges a nervous Bilbo. He takes a deep breath and looks behind them to the wall of the QZ. Thorin had often heard the phrase ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place,’ and more now that the world as they knew it had ended. Sure, he’d made tough choices, but right here between the safety net of the QZ he could never return to and the danger of the Lone-lands he finally understands it.

Back to the wind, he gives one last deep breath and moves from the shadow of the last safe haven of a broken world.

 

—

 

Thorin grips the edge of an old dumpster, using all of his strength to relocate it. The wheels have rusted and are digging into the dirt between sections of shattered concrete. Once in place, he hoists Kili up onto the ledge. Fili followed. and Thorin sighed inwardly as he turned to his last charge.

“I can get up myself,” Bilbo huffed, taking a running jump and grabbing the edge of the dumpster. He thanked Fili as the boy took his hand and helped to lift him up. Another deep sigh, it was probably his tenth in the last hour, but what could he do?

As tempting as it was to say ‘no’ to one Mr. Baggins, Thorin had not been able to refuse him. According to Nori (in a hushed whisper), the teacher was likely to find himself in serious trouble were he to go back. He’d stolen directly from the government - from a ranking position, no less - and gone under martial law to get it to them. He had to say yes, of course he did, but Thorin was dying to know: why?

He could only guess what was running through that odd brain of his. The man was a puzzle. No one did anything for free. It was principle these days. Yet this teacher had demonstrated more empathy in the past few days than he’d seen in all the years since the infection spread combined.

Thorin hoisted himself up and over, onto the next street. He hadn’t told Bilbo yet where they were going, just that they needed to get out of the QZ before officials found them. It was unlikely that they would waste soldiers going out into the Lone-lands just to retrieve them. So the farther they got, and the faster they did it, the better.

The weather was peaceful as they made their way through the abandoned part of the city. The rain had eased up, leaving the ground smelling fresh and not so moldy. Fili and Kili seemed to be in awe of the world around them, darting away as far they dared, and inspected everything in sight. The flora in particular seemed to interest them. They chewed Bilbo’s ears off with questions about this or that but the teacher only responded patiently with not even a hint of irritation at the barrage.

Although Thorin didn’t like Bilbo, he could admit that the man did well with his nephews. Their earlier tenseness when they’d just been alone with Thorin seemed to slowly slough away. The three seemed to be at ease around each other, and from where he walked behind them, Thorin could see flashes of Bilbo’s smile thrown at him whenever the boys said something particularly absurd. At the sight of another adult’s mirth, even he was unable to resist the itch in his lips every so often when Kili would ask a question about the old world. Some nonsense about fast food restaurants. He had missed this. Some common ground among others that weren’t born into this world.

Before that thought could fully develop into more dangerous territory, Thorin squished it under his proverbial heel.

“Wait, so girls wore dirt on their face to make them look prettier?” Kili exclaimed in disbelief.

Bilbo laughed, and Fili rolled his eyes at his brother’s assumptions. The elder nudged him with a huff, “He’s not saying that, doofus, he’s saying that they wore makeup to hide the ugly bits.”

“Oh.” Kili nodded, but immediately perked up, unfazed, “Did men wear makeup?”

“Some, but it wasn’t normally done.” Bilbo explained, trying and failing to hide his smile.

“Well they should, I know a lot of men who are uglier than women.” Kili said, crossing his arms.

Thorin couldn’t have faked a frown even if he’d tried. They were his Achilles heel, and he knew it. If anything were to happen to them, he didn’t know what he’d do. As happy as he was that they were immune (both of them, it happened to be), he was also terrified. It was a secret they had to hide. Fili’s bite was well hidden, on his upper arm, but Kili’s leg wound could be easily found. Who knew what people would do to the boys when they found out about their immunity? He knew of course but he was disquieted of the thought. No doubt they would be taken away from him, forced to go through test after test, their very lives and what little adolescence they had would be stripped down to nothing. Thorin simply had no choice but to preserve that.

“Well, this is a problem.” Bilbo said suddenly ahead of them, throwing him out of his funk.

Thorin grunted, and sped up to look down over the edge of the broken parking garage they were currently on. The ground below them had fallen into the subway track, making their initial descent a very, very long drop. Thorin swore. They had been trying desperately to stay on the streets - they were more open, but it also meant that they weren't cornered in a tight place. Having several ways to escape during an unexpected attack was an invaluable advantage.

“Do we double back?” Fili asked him, considering the distance with narrowed eyes.

“No, the other streets are blocked off, we’ll just have to cut through that building,” Thorin said, pointing at the old theater. “Shouldn’t be too hard to get through and get back on the road.”

“Where are we heading?” Bilbo finally asks. When Thorin looked back, the shorter man was peering over the edge of the garage.

“Just away, if we can, we should skip town. I know there’s another QZ not far from here, in Bree. It’s smaller, but I know some others who left Delving to get there. It should be safe. They won’t know us there. We can start over.” He said with a soft grunt as he pushed the rusted metal door open.

The roof over the lobby had collapsed, and left the what had once been an obviously modern movie theater into a scene from the twilight zone. The door screeched on the floor, and Thorin had to stop and listen in case that noise dragged out things from the dark. Apart from a nest of birds flying out from a rusted-out popcorn machine, it was clear. They watched as the birds flapped wildly to the gaping mouth of the ceiling. It seemed like nothing could escape the greenery once it weaseled its way inside. Ferns carpeted their descent into the hallway, and pollen powdered the gaudy dark rug that showed through the greenery in an aged yellow.

Bilbo gave a little laugh, and they looked at him tapping at an old poster on the wall as they passed, his knuckle leaving an imprint on the chalky brown glass.

“You know my cousin was in this movie?” He commented idly, looking at a woman on the side in bright, flashy clothing. “It was terrible, really.” He chuckled “The movie I mean, I don’t know what happened to her.” Bilbo’s sudden hilarity bubbled away as soon as it came, his voice soft in his reminiscing, “She always wanted to be in the movies, the glory and the flash. It was all very her. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. She would have been a star, she was definitely shrewd enough. Probably would have bullied her way to a lead role eventually.”

“Seriously?” Kili asked, eyes widening as he studied the teacher’s cousin in her predated clothes. His brow scrunched in a quizzical manner. “What is she wearing?”

Fili scoffed and shook his head in disapproval, “Imagine running from infected with that on. You’d never get away. Too many ways you could grab her.”

Thorin sighed, but kept going, not pausing beyond initial observation. Bilbo picked up right behind him. The hallways were dark and dank, leaving too much to the imagination. Just when it began to grow too dark Thorin paused and held a arm out to warn the others. Bilbo came up to his side and crouched down.

Thorin was sure he was hearing clickers, it was faint and almost inaudible but he was positive he was hearing it, but it sounded odd. It also sounded just like it was coming from behind them...

Bilbo screamed.

Thorin drew his gun and flicked his flashlight on. Behind him was Bilbo gripping his chest and beside him were two grinning mouths.

Thorin was sure his heart was about to stop and anger rushed in to replace fear, “You think that was funny!” At his words, Fili and Kili’s grins slipped, bubbling shame taking its place.

Fili muttered a quiet apology, but Thorin continued angrily, “You think clickers are a joke! Fili, you of all people should know that those things are dangerous, this isn’t a game.” He seethed.

“Now hold on.” Bilbo states. “They’re just having a bit of fun.”

Thorin reared on the teacher. Was Bilbo actually defending this kind of behavior? “A bit of fun.” He repeated tightly, “Clickers are not some fucking shaggy-dog-story!”  pointing at the boys.

He watches as the other man rolls his eyes. Was he fucking joking? Despite himself, Thorin felt his face reddening and he was sure something was twitching. What kind of sick twisted man thought that this was nothing? They were older! Adults! They had to set examples for these two idiots!

Sensing that Thorin was enraged, Bilbo sighed, “Thorin, a word please.” he says, pointing his now lit flashlight back the way they came. “Boys, stay here and keep watch, okay?” He stated, and without a by-your-leave, grabbed Thorins elbow, steering him away from the boys.

Admirably, Thorin allows this gentle manhandling for about the incredible maximum of five seconds before he turns and rips his arm out as soon as they clear back into full daylight. “They need to learn that kind of joking will only get them killed.” He mutters darkly. “We can’t encourage this.”

For his part, the teacher just shrugs and crosses his arms, “They’re just kids, Thorin.”

“Well, the things out there don’t care if they’re kids or not.” He argues, “They don’t care if you’re old, young, male or female.”

“Be that as it may,” Bilbo persisted, “While I’m happy to reprimand them for their location, you really think that’s the worse I’ve been subjected to at the schools?” Bilbo says simply as though they’re talking about the weather.

“I don’t care,” he stamped out, having no interest in whatever experience the other man may or may not have in dealing with children. What did he take him for? An idiot? “They should know better than to make those kinds of jokes.” Thorin’s irritated now.

Bilbo’s slightly amused look falls as he sensed their talk coming full circle. He scrutinized Thorin closely, “Know better? This is all they know.”

“Excuse me?”

Bilbo drops his arms. “These two have known nothing else their whole lives. They were born to this world. They’re going to make jokes, Thorin. We joked about many dangers in our time. This is no different. Do you know how many fake bites and clicking noises I’ve been subjected to?”

Thorin looked at Bilbo. Really looks at him this time, and he’s just about to open his mouth before Bilbo holds his hands up again.

“Be that as it may, you’re right about one thing. That was really the wrong place to make that kind of joke, and, yes, they should be scolded.” Bilbo says looking back down to where the boys are “Just, make sure you yell at them for the right thing. They didn’t lose as much as we did when the infected came into their lives.”

Thorin’s left standing in place for longer than he meant to just gazing at where Bilbo used to be. It wasn’t often he was scolded, and it had been quite some time since he’d let someone do it without getting a punch to the throat. The last person who could have done anything of that calibur had died four months ago. Yet here is Bilbo Baggins whom he’d known for a total of three days. A puzzle, indeed.  

When he finally found it in him to rejoin Bilbo and the boys, he found Bilbo looking sternly at Fili and Kili, who were quick to apologise as soon as Thorin was within hearing range. He gave them his best you-should-know-better-look before waving them off, and hurried down the hallway.

Movie theaters, by design are practically windowless, which made it darker as they progressed.  The gaping hole they passed was well behind them, and it wasn’t long before their yellowed torches were the only source of light.

“Shit,” Thorin muttered, as he saw that the emergency exit door at the end of the hallway was blocked off with hastily moved furniture. “Lets just see if we can get out through one of the screening rooms.”

Thorin turned around, and nearly knocked Bilbo over in the process. The curly haired man had tripped, and would have fallen if Thorin hadn’t pulled at his upper arm. He was in the midst of glaring at Bilbo before movement caught his eye off in the distance. Still holding onto Bilbo, he crouched and shook the man's arm in reproach when he let out a startled gasp. “Boys, get behind me.” He whispered.

Kili and Fili were quick to comply—eager to follow any orders after the verbal lashing they had received — and dropped down to a crouch, Thorin took a deep breath and lifted his torch to point down the black hallway.

He let out a giant sigh of relief when a deer stared back at him, before bounding off into one of the rooms. Shaking his head, he let go of Bilbo and muttered darkly under his breath. Being outside the QZ was one thing for work, soldiers were always there, and although generally incompetent, were a gifted security detail. Here and now, he was on his own , and scared of infected, humans, apparently animals, and his own shadow.

“Fuckin’ deer.” He sighed, annoyance replacing the alleviation quickly.

As it turned out, the deer had gone through an opening just where they needed to be. The parking lot to what was once a grocery store had transformed into a forest, trees growing this way and that through distorted pavement and weather-worn and vine-covered cars. If there had been any bodies, they had long since decomposed. Bigger trees that must have once been part of the landscape had overgrown, and towered over them, making the ground seem  specked from the light in the leaves above and the shadows dancing in the softly growing breeze. Birds in a nearby shrub took off in flight as soon as Kili stumbled and scuffed his shoe. On the very far side of the lot, inside a gas station, Thorin could just make out a few infected.

“Should we worry about them?” Fili asked, picking out the danger quickly.

“No, we’re going the opposite way, so we should be able to avoid them.” Thorin said. “We save all the resources we can.” He finished hiking his backpack up further on his shoulder.  “Come on, we have a long way to go.”

They continued on in silence, the white noise of birds and animals a reprieve to their already strained emotions. Although hyperarousal was still in control of Thorin’s body, he felt a little less boxed in and ready to bolt.

Bilbo, ahead of him again, was talking to Kili about some plant or another. He is again reminded that he hasn’t told Bilbo their destination. It’s not like Frerin is some deep dark secret, though. His brother had left two years ago on a firedrake campaign, nothing more. He’d already accepted Bilbo in this little adventure, whether he liked it or not. He had his pride, and that, mixed with a bit of spite, keeping him for telling the teacher. Pride that he’d only known Bilbo for three whole days, and spite that he got on so well with his nephews.

Yet, when faced with the facts, if something were to happen to him, Bilbo could finish the job and get Fili and Kili to Frerin. His pride would be their downfall if he died and Bilbo was left to survive with two boys and no destination.

“My brother is at the QZ in Bree,” he commented idly, smirking when he saw Bilbo turn to look at him oddly.

“Your brother?” Bilbo repeated. “I didn’t know that that’s where he’d gone?”

“We had our differences. Frerin wanted to go one way, and Dis and I the other,” Thorin said back, narrowing his eyes at Bilbo. Had Fili told this man everything? And while he was willing to give some necessary information, he wasn’t quite yet ready to tell his whole life story to Bilbo, even if it had already been spilt via Fili.

“Do you know if he’s still there?” Bilbo inquired, processing this new information.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Thorin answered. “But if he is, he’ll help us.”

“He was friends with Nori’s brother, right? I remember him commenting on it.” Bilbo asked, looking up at him.

Thorin didn’t know how to respond to that with anything other than a nod. Dori and Frerin’s fallout was not something he really wanted to explain now. Slowly, the day passed by, Fili’s and Kili’s enthusiasm dwindling. They stayed closer to the adults now, rather than running off as they had done before.

“We’ll need a place to sleep for the night.” Bilbo commented, looking up. The sky had lost all of its blue, and was the sun was setting in a pink and purple haze, the last remnants of light just leaving the tops of the buildings reflecting off the bits of glass still there.

Thorin nodded, and ordered Fili and Kili to stay close “We should look for a bathroom, it will be the easiest to defend, and we can lock it from the inside.” He said blinking when Bilbo gave him the oddest look. “What?” He asked sharply, unused to that sort of scrutiny.

“Nothing, that’s just a brilliant.”

Thorin had the decency and control to bite the inside of this cheek, cutting off the undoubtedly rude reply to that remark. You had to be smart to still be alive, smart and lucky. The teacher here seemed to be running solely on luck, something Thorin couldn’t help but turn a nose at. It was remarkable in itself that the smaller man had made it this far.

Perhaps something had shown on his face after all, for Bilbo seemed to sense how his sentence was being taken — widening his eyes and looking anywhere but at Thorin — yet didn’t seem that inclined to apologise just coughed and kept walking.

“Let’s check that gas station over there, it’s less likely to have windows,” Thorin finally suggested.

They left Fili and Kili to watch the road. The gas station was, for the most part, still intact. The glass was gone, and the place had been looted, but otherwise it was whole. Plantlife had rooted deep into the bleak linoleum and metal shelving, and it didn’t take long for Thorin to locate the key ring to the bathroom. Once he had, Bilbo unlocked the door, while Thorin readied his knife. Bilbo was hesitant, but nodded back at Thorin before pushing open the door.  

Nothing.

It was completely empty, and to his utter surprise almost completely uncontaminated. The papers on the wall were still dry and crisp, though yellowed with age. The sink and toilet were clean (save for mold and a tinge of moss), and there was actual toilet paper rolls on the small table in the corner. Thorin took a sniff and he swore he could still smell some sort of air freshener.

“Wow.” Bilbo whispered looking to Thorin. The teacher showed to be in just as much amazement as he was.

“Just so I’m not imagining things, it does still smell like...”

“Apples? Yes, I mean no you’re not imagining, I’ve just, wow, I’ve haven't seen a place so untouched.” Bilbo commented standing just outside the door. They both looked to be battling the same thing. It was so virginal that he didn’t even dare to reach out and it.

He was getting nostalgic over a damned gas station toilet room.   

“Hard to touch, isn’t it?” Bilbo commented as though everything Thorin had just thought was out on a silver platter for him. “It looks like the way things were, I can’t believe how much has changed, you know how long it’s been since I’ve seen toilet paper that’s not military issue?”

Thorin opted out not to reply, but that didn’t seem like too much of an issue. The two of them sat there for who knows how long just staring. It had obviously been a tad too long, because Kili and Fili waltzed around the corner, obviously nervous, as though they’d been expecting the worst.

“Is there something in there?” Kili asked quietly.

Kili’s voice seemed to break the adults’ trance.

“Just the past.” Thorin muttered.

After a bit of raiding from a nearby apartment complex, they managed to procure some blankets and pillows, a bit bloodstained and moldy, but better than the hard granite tiling and two bedrolls for four bodies. They decided that Fili and Kili would stay sandwiched between the two of them, feet to the door.

“Do we want to take watches?” Bilbo asked as he dropped his backpack into a corner.    

Thorin was testing the door’s strength, and although the hinges were a tad rusty, it was sound. Nothing could possibly come in, and even if something did, it couldn’t come in quietly.

“No, I think for tonight we’ll be safe.”

The boys were out cold quickly. Their talent of being able to sleep immediately and anywhere was something Thorin had always envied. After Bilbo’s ‘speech’ earlier he felt he had a better understanding of why. His mind repeating over and over, “This is all they’ve ever known.”

It was true, and Thorin couldn’t do a damn thing about it. For the boys, they were safe and sleep was easy. They didn’t know about a world where there was no danger, to fall asleep on your bed with no weapon. Thorin himself had fallen asleep on more benches in parks than he would like to admit to.

He welcomed their breathing patterns, using it to lull him asleep. Kili always had a faint whistle from the gap in his front teeth, and Fili rarely opened his mouth, preferring to breathe in through his nose. Thorin was unfamiliar to Bilbo, however, and when he couldn’t pick him out he had to guess that the teacher was asleep as well. Maybe it was years of fear and weariness? Perhaps it was protective instinct, but it took far longer for Thorin to drift.

When he woke, it was still dark. The air had grown colder, and it took a while to blink the grit out of his eyes and soon as he heard what had woken him he was sitting bolt upright wide awake. It was raining lightly outside, but that was just white noise to the clicking sound not four feet from the door.

“They’ve been there for about half an hour.”

Had Thorin been made of weaker material, he might of screamed, but as it was he gave a loud gasp, and inwardly cursed when the clicking grew incessant.

Feeling a body brush against his, he felt Bilbo sit down just to the side of him, pressed up between himself and Kili. “Sorry.” The teacher muttered.

“How long have you been awake?” Thorin asked the darkness.

“Don’t know, I’m not even sure I fell asleep.” The man answered.

“They’ll move on, get some rest.” Thorin ordered, and it felt like he was reassuring himself bu saying

it aloud. It wouldn’t do to have the both of them out of commission.

“What did you do?” Bilbo tried, “Before all this happened.”

Thorin sighed, obviously Bilbo wasn’t just going to fall asleep.

He thought back. “I, uh, I was in college. Graduated with a Masters when everything went to shit, actually.” Thorin admitted at last, casting a glance at the presence by his side. “My brother and sister were luckily there at the ceremony so we weren’t separated.”

“What?” Bilbo softly exclaimed. Thorin felt his body move next to him in surprise. “Literally

during graduation?”

“Yeah.” Thorin affirmed stiffly, unwilling to elaborate on the specific events of the day that day, when he saw so many of his classmates being mauled by people, kids like him, who had their lives ahead of them.

“I’m,” Bilbo paused to swallow audibly, “I’m very sorry to hear that. I had graduated high school already, but I never got a chance to go to college. To have been so close, it must have been hard.”

Thorin didn’t grace Bilbo with a reply and instead shifted away, curling around Kili more snugly. “Go to sleep, Mr. Baggins. We have a full day ahead of us.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Ewe:** Hello guys, sorry we took a while to get this to you, some things happened (I got a job, Safic moved upstate) As you’re probably realizing, we’re now in the Lonelands. And if you’ve ever played the game after you’ve gone through a lot of infected, you’re more likely to run into some...smarter enemies after. *smiles* We hope you enjoyed this chapter, thank you for reading!


	4. Suspicions Unfaulted

 

Bilbo staggered into the old motel room in heaving pants. His lungs felt raw, like icy fingers ripping into his chest and pooling his chest with cold, unforgiving water. Air couldn’t seem to come faster and Bilbo struggled to quiet his breathing. Let it go unsaid that the infected were terrible. Humans however, were just so much worse.

_The highway skirting the city of Bree was quiet, Bilbo had just said as much when Thorin turned and swore loudly. There was just enough time to see riot gear before bullets whizzed past his head. In a moment of instinct he gripped the two boys in front of him and ran zig zagging in between ruined cars. The clear skies and cloudless horizon mocked them with their startling beauty as they ran from the artillery._

_Soldiers, there was simply no mistaking the uniformal black padding, the way they moved in an organized unit. But this far out? He had only expected hunters and undead this far out into the Lone-lands._

_“They’re going to fucking draw all the infected here!” Thorin yelled, pushing Bilbo to the side and pulling out his own small handgun and rapidly firing back. As though summoned by Thorin’s words themselves, an answering chorus of guttural clicks and screams were the only warning they had before hordes of Clickers came into view. Bilbo’s blood rushed from his face as the infected started staggering towards them from every angle, and backed the four in a tight circle._

_It occurred to him then that this was truly a mobocracy free-for-all. Bilbo couldn’t hear anything beyond the white noise of Thorin’s gunshots and desperate sounds of his own heartbeat. When Thorin managed to obliterate a path for them behind an RV, he had just enough time to throw Kili onto his back and grip Fili’s arm before he took off again._

_Some ways down an empty ramp Bilbo was startled to hear hysterical laughter and realised rather belatedly it was his own. They only paused briefly to breathe when Thorin finally caught up while the soldiers were left to deal with the infected._

_“Devil take the hindmost.” Bilbo laughed breathlessly, pointedly ignoring the stare Thorin leveled at him._

 

“Everyone okay?” Thorin inquired between gasping. The man bent over on himself next to the window leaning up between spells to peek out the window.

Fili all but collapsed onto the bed and merely raised his arm and gave a feeble thumbs up. Kili, though had not overtly exerted himself through the hell pot outside, but was still shaking. When he finally nodded, albeit brusquely to be entirely okay Thorin finally allowed himself to relax.

“Baggins?” He asked.

Bilbo huffed. “I’m fine, a bit winded but I’ll live. Are we safe here?”

“No, but we can recoup.” Thorin said with a shake of his head and checked minutely out the window again. He tensed and kneeled down by the window and ushered him over. Bilbo instantly tensed, but nonetheless followed and leaned against Thorin to look out the window.

“Search the area!” A voice yelled suddenly, making the two cringe, “Set up a perimeter!” Thorin saw just the edge of a body before gripping Bilbo and pulled him down.

“They just don’t give up, do they?” Bilbo hissed.

“We need to get out.” Thorin hissed. He sighed and motioned for Fili and Kili to join them.

“Are you quite soft in the brain! What were you thinking about shooting like that in Lone-land Area!” A familiar voice yelled and suddenly Bilbo is rendered useless in shock a desperate cold feeling dropping into his stomach. Mister Greag? It can’t be, no surely it can’t. He hears weak stammering as the soldier tries to explain himself. “What’s done is done.” The man dismisses in a perfunctory manner. With a little verbal push Bilbo crawled after Thorin, who looked back briefly to the window with wide eyes.

“And you’re certain Bilbo Baggins was with them?” As Bilbo mirrored Thorin’s averted move around broken glass on the rug, Greag’s next inquiry derailed them.

“Positive.” came the militant answer.

Bilbo tensed and he turns to look at Thorin who has a murderous look in his eyes as he gazes at him. “That’s Mister Greag, he’s part of the reason we have a school system.” He whispered.

Thorin swore and takes another look out the window. “He probably thinks we kidnapped you, this is just fan-fucking-tastic.” He says and leans back to pull out his bag. “I have one smoke bomb courtesy of Nori.” Bilbo stopped Thorin before he could even lift it out of the bag. There were always ways out. If this Baggins had learned anything it was stealth got less bloodshed. Especially when it came to the living.

“What?” Thorin barked. It went silent outside and he lowered his voice to a dark growl. “They’re going to be here any minute.” Suddenly Thorin sits up. “Unless you go out.”

“Excuse me?” Bilbo said, momentarily taken aback.

“You say you were kidnapped by us and go out, hands up.”

“No Thorin, I’m not leaving you.” Bilbo seethed.

“Why?”

Bilbo spluttered. He didn’t have an answer in the face of that. He really didn’t need to be here did he? He certainly volunteered himself to this craziness because he wanted to keep Kili and Fili safe. But actually coming out here, actually witnessing Thorin take care of his own, it almost seemed like there wouldn’t have been a difference whether he was here or not. Thorin’s question suddenly ripped the metaphorical rug right from under him. To be honest, he’s been putting off the answer even from himself.

Mister Greag would believe whatever perjury he spun and none would be the wiser. He’d get hounded for information and now Bilbo would be obligated to do what Mister Greag has asked him to do months ago. Asking him to do his part as—

Bilbo froze in dawning realization.

It wasn’t so hard to stretch that Mister Greag must know about Fili and Kili, or at the very least Fili. Somehow he must have known Bilbo would be unable to leave the brothers, or perhaps he wanted to exploit his strong sense of compassion like a fiddle, he realized with guilt so strong he felt a physically twinge in his chest.

“We have to leave, now!” Bilbo breathed in horror.

“Yes. We do.” Thorin shot back, obviously bothered by Bilbo’s lack of cooperation.

“No you don’t understand, I think he knows about Fili. Knows that—god I don’t know. We just need to leave. I can’t go back. Please you must trust me on this.” Bilbo pleaded.

Thorin narrowed his eyes and huffed. “Fine, but we talk about this later.”

Bilbo nodded quickly. He would agree to anything at this moment if it got him far away from Mister Greag as possible. How was it possible that the man knew about the boy? Ranking of that caliber to obtain such undisclosed information had to be unsavory and if there was one thing a Baggins could do, it was avoid the unpleasant. Thorin shifted and crawled toward the broken a molded bed. “Lets see if there is another way out, a bathroom window or something.”

The voices began to grow agitated as they cleared the bathroom, feet carefully crunching over the dust of broken tiles. The bathroom had a huge gaping hole in the wall leading into the next room and beyond that the remains of a park. Had his heart not been lodged deep in his stomach, Bilbo would have cried in joy.

He only just herded Kili out the door when both men flinched at the sound of a door slamming open in an adjacent room and soldiers talking. Thorin gave him another once over but didn’t press anymore for Bilbo to leave.

The park had overgrown and resembled a untamed forest more than an esplanade. Bilbo for the second time that day ran for his life. Thorin led the way through undergrowth and over abandoned and rusting benches. Bilbo was on edge, every rustle in the bush had his hands flying to rocks and sticks.

At a small creek they stopped to take a breather, Kili was leaned heavily on Thorin and gasping for breath. “Uncle, why do you think they’re following us this far?” Fili asked once he caught his breath.

Thorin only ignored the question and immediately rounded on Bilbo, who dared to look up and meet the long hard glance. “Who are you?” He questioned in a low voice.

That certainly was not what he had expected to hear. Bilbo was momentarily thrown back by the question. He evenly stared back with a slack expression of confusion. ”What are you on about?”

“Who are you? Who do you work for? They wouldn’t follow us this far if there wasn’t a reason. People disappear out of the QZ all the time. So I’ll say it again. Who are you?” Thorin growled as he stepped closer and gripped the lapels for Bilbo’s jacket.

In a panic Bilbo scrambled for Thorin’s wrists as he felt his feet start to lift off the ground. “I’m not anyone! Look, Mister Greag approached me about a year ago, talking about how I was too smart to be teaching kids and that I could have a job as a higher up and something about salvation of humankind and I was too scared to take him up on the offer. About four months ago I was offered the teaching position in zone four and here we are! That’s it!”

Thorin’s face drew closer, his cold furious blue eyes bearing down into his and all but a second away from shaking a confession out of the smaller man. Bilbo felt his heart racing again and swore he could feel the beat of his blood through his hands. “I think he knows about them, or Fili at any rate. I don’t know why or how.”

“Is that right?” Thorin snarled, his fingers tightening. “Well in that case, thank you Mister Baggins, I think we’ve gotten all the help we can get from you.”

“Wait!” Fili called to his back. “Don’t we get a say in this?” The boy begged, looking desperately between the two adults.

“No.” Thorin darkly muttered.

“Uncle!” Fili rushed trying to pry Bilbo from Thorin’s grip. “You don’t know him like we do, okay? Bilbo would never do something like that. He wouldn’t give me or Kili up. Even if he planned to, don’t you think he would have done it a bit sooner?”

“Fili, I am not arguing with you. Now is not the time for this!” Thorin growled.

“No, it’s not.” Bilbo quips quickly, reaching up to grip Thorin’s wrist. “There are soldiers after us and we don’t know what’s out here. Can we please do this later?”

“Fine. You’re coming with us, but I have my eye on you. I don’t trust you and if are up to something, if anything happens to these two it’s your hide I’m tanning, you got it?” Thorin shook him once to emphasise his point. Bilbo glared as he was rattled.

“I’ve had it the whole time, now lets go.” Bilbo managed a hoarse whisper. Thorin hesitated and reluctantly lowered him back to the ground, but kept his fist in his shirt.

“You hear that?”

“Yeah, sounded like a bunch a tourists.”

Whatever tension fizzled out between them as Bilbo and Thorin shared a look of horror as the voices drew near. Soldiers didn’t use the term tourists. Soldiers would be almost preferable to these types of people. Hunters were hostile survivors, and were ruthless to take anyone that ventured into their territory. Bilbo has heard horror stories of what they do to people who had nicer things than they did. Thorin who was still holding onto Bilbo, bodily pushed him to the ground. The smaller man’s knees folded awkwardly and he spared a split second to glare at Thorin, growing quickly annoyed by all the manhandling in a span of less than five minutes. Kili and Fili quickly mimicked them and dropped on all fours.

The voices soon pass and Thorin motions for Bilbo and the boys to stay down as he creeped to a squatting position and peered over the shrubbery. Whatever he saw was enough to flatten himself back to the ground and crawl back to Bilbo, keeping his voice low. “There’s two men over there, definitely not from QZ, we need to get out quick I’m going to draw them away, you head that way and I’ll meet you further up the stream. Got it?”

Bilbo audibly swallows, but nods. “Good.” Thorin says and the three of them watch as he turns a counter corner and disappear. Bilbo waited with baited breath, perfectly still before he hears a smashing of glass and he has Kili and Fili in grip and running through the park. Its lush and tamed greenery had grown wild over the twenty years since the infection began to spread and has now become a thick forest.

It doesn’t take long before all noise is stopped and well behind them. He slows down, making sure the boys are in front of him the whole way. Heavy footsteps sound behind them and Bilbo flips around and pulls out his Glock. He’s far from comfortable to use it but he’ll keep these boys from harm at all cost. He’s ready to take out anything that dares jump them.

To his utter relief, it’s only Thorin and he’s sporting a slip lip and already sporting some darkening bruises around his right eye.

“What happened?” Bilbo asks in distress, stepping forward.

“We need to get going, soon. I have a bad feeling about Bree.” Thorin states and Bilbo has only a moment before the man is heading in the direction of city center. His shoulders tense and has the air of distress following him like clinging smoke.

Thorin’s suspicions are unfaulted, as they near the QZ it’s obvious that things had definitely gone wrong. The cement wall had a blasted hole in the middle and instead of soldiers there was a line of rouge civilians sitting on a turned over bus.

“What do we do?” Bilbo inquires as they watch the men behind a thick line of trees and underbrush.

“I don’t know, okay?” Thorin admits in frustration. “I doubt Frerin would be part of this. This is a recent development though. Two months ago while I was on outside duty we met soldiers from his QZ.” Thorin says. “Something happened here and not too long ago. We need to go in there. If it’s really recent there won’t be much in the way of organization.”

Bilbo felt his whole gut lurch and something in him screamed that this was a bad idea. Self preservation taking over. He ignores the feeling and follows Thorin only as soon as he sees the boys follow.

They hide behind a barricade made of stacks cars, their paint had long been flecked away and the rust was corroding the vehicles' skeletons. Bilbo scans the area as he's gripping Thorin’s arm to stop him when the man moves to take out the two on the bus. He gestured wildly to another hunter approaching.

“Phil and Jake are dead!” The man calls.

Bilbo’s eyes owl and turns to look at Thorin for confirmation; the man however was steadfastly looking on ahead.

The hunters scramble to go investigate leaving a lone body to guard the bus. Thorin sits and idles, obviously checking all possibilities of an attack that won’t draw attention. He reaches for his gun and Bilbo panics. Gunshots will only bring them back. Looking around on the ground Bilbo grips a brick. It’s in half but has a good weight to it. Pulling back he just has enough alertness to Thorin’s growl before he lets it fly. Praying he’s as good as this as he was when I last had to.

The man is out the moment the brick hits his head and Bilbo is up and running before he even thinks about it; overjoyed inside that his number one skill in the forsaken land is still as sharp as always. He gets close enough to the bus and turns around. He nods his head at the bus to Thorin whose only half way to him.

“That was so cool!” Kili gasps at him awestruck. Bilbo smiles and helps lift the youngest up onto the overturned bus. Thorin has already lifted Fili up and gives Bilbo a sidelong glance.

“What?” Bilbo says narrowing his eyes and braces himself for another fight. He reached up to grab Fili’s offered hand gratefully to haul himself up onto the bus.

“Nothing.” Thorin says, and that seems to be the end of it. Bilbo—maybe not so mentally—rolls his eyes but continues on.

Thorin was right, nothing resembled redementrury organization anywhere. There were no soldiers or anything that resembled government. The checkpoint looked torn and ravaged, scorch marks and broken glass that told tales of molotovs being fung everywhere. The the rest of the disemboweled QZ now resembled the lone lands.

“Lets slip through here.” Thorin says ushering them into a what was once a home improvement store. It’s cheery orange and white entrance had been modified to a barricade made of wooden boards and metal sheets. It’s seemingly empty but Thorin does not take any chances still leads them along the wall and through shadows. The rest of the store has become a shanty of makeshift beds. They traverse through the store and back past an employees only door. Bilbo tenses when he’s treated to a view of a loading dock and a pair of hunters playing cards on top of a molding crate. One man wore stolen chest armor from a soldier and the other hunter had the sides of his scalp shaved.

The two men get up immediately and point two matching shod off shotguns at them. Thorin subtly moves in front of the boys and partially in Bilbo’s line of site. He’s honored that Thorin’s willing to put himself in harm’s way.

One of the men flicks his gun. “Who are you? You’re no uniforms.”

Thorin remains silent, there’s nothing really he can say that won’t get them shot.

“I asked you a question old man. Who are you?” The man says again and starts to walk towards them.

Thorin tenses and if he wasn’t so scared Bilbo might have been impressed how much Thorin’s presence grows bigger in barely hinted movements. Slowly Thorin draws his hunting knife and holds it to his side.

The man guffaws and smiles wide. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to bring a knife to a gunfight.”

Thorin still doesn’t respond.

“Shit! They got kids with them.” The other man says catching sight of Fili and Kili.

“Yeah and?” The first one says smirking.

“We’re looking for someone.” Bilbo says suddenly in inspiration, hoping to stall for a moment.

Thorin glared hard at him and he merely shrugs. “We’re looking for someone by the name of Frerin.”

The second man goes pale and his face slakens and the first lines his gun up to Bilbo’s face. “Yeah I know ‘im, you with the Firedrakes as well?”

“No!” Bilbo cries. Oh god if there was one thing he knew, hunters and Firedrakes always were at teeth to teeth with one another. “Look, we just want to know where he is okay?”

The second man smirks “I aint’ gunna tell you anything.”

Bilbo blanched looking down the barrel of the shotgun. A ruckus down the hall pulled everyone’s attention and Thorin used it to his advantage gripping the first man's shotgun and pulled it from his grip using the hilt to bash him in the face. The second one pulled his weapon up but still seemed distracted by what was going on outside and Thorin moved quickly to detained him.

“We’re not looking for any trouble, you tell me where the Firedrakes are.” Thorin demanded, holding the man in a headlock with the stolen shotgun.

“Look, fuck you man,” Spittle flies at the force of his curse, “I don’t know alright, the Firedrakes left as soon as riots starting breaking out. Please just let me go, my sister is out there!” The man pleads. Something in his voice seemed to have placate Thorin. He lets the man go watches as he bolts out the door.

“What now?” Bilbo asks.

“Do not talk to me! Next time think before you open your fucking mouth!” Thorin snaps immediately, turning to him. Bilbo wide-eye watches him ready for the verbal onslaught but the sounds outside are getting worse and Thorin huffed instead turning around to scan the room. Without further prompting he leads the group out the door. Kili gives his best reassuring smile to Bilbo.

Bilbo inhales and exhales through his nostrils slowly, trying to reign in his temper. One step forward, and five steps back. There was a strong urge in him to give Thorin a good lashing. But he knows now isn’t the time so he sighs and follows.

The back alleyway has been barricaded high and Thorin spins on his heel to turn around and go back inside when the ground shakes with explosions. Bilbo and Thorin share a horrified look and they end up on a makeshift ladder to the rooftops. Once there, Bilbo tells the boys to stay back, and he and Thorin crawl to the edge that will let them see the ground below.

“Oh my god.” Bilbo whispered. The ground is a battlefield of hunters and the soldiers from the Delving QZ. “What are they doing here?” He wondered out loud.

Thorin gave him a glare. “I don’t know, you tell me?”

“Thorin, I have no idea!” Bilbo shouts, growing quickly tired of his hostility. He couldn’t see how anyone could grow enough patience for this man. If he had ever met Thorin in another universe where they didn’t need each other to survive, he probably would have walked away at the first meeting. Bilbo was beginning to think he was quite the most unpleasant person he’s ever had the misfortune to be acquainted with. To reign his annoyance in, Bilbo looked away and glared down below to avoid looking at Thorin. Any longer he might be tempted to punch him.

Thorin exhaled as though he expected Bilbo to breakdown and plead forgiveness. Still, he doesn’t refute, for all his words he really has no proof of whatever it is he’s accusing Bilbo of being.

“Come on, we can move by rooftop.” Thorin suggests gruffly and they tread back to the boys. Moving carefully and slowly so not to be seen, the ragtag group cross boards and ladders reminiscent of past excursions before they’re forced to finally drop down into an old pub. It’s quiet so they scour for as many supplies as they can find. Bilbo slips off into the kitchen and a cabinet that has fallen over grabs his attention. At first it doesn’t budge and standing back he sees why. The bolt that kept it to the floor is twisted and locked the thing in place.

It takes a bit of strength but the moment he can reach his hand in Bilbo almost weeps for joy. There are at least four bottles of full vodka.

“You ready to go, Baggins?” Thorin called from the other room.

“Yes, a moment please.” Bilbo answered back as he stuffed the bottles into his bag carefully so that they wouldn’t break. On the way out he spots an old bottle of dish soap and hesitated only a second before grabbing that as well.

Thorin explained that they needed to get to the other side of the QZ and that will exit them right into the Trollshaw Nation Park and from there they can go through it on the tour road and head towards Rails Dim. It’s a long shot for sure, but Thorin believed that if the Firedrakes had escaped the city thats the road they would have gone.

Thorin opts to use the roofs as much as he can, working their way through the QZ. Bilbo suspected there had to be hundreds of people still living and he called it a blessing they didn’t see many others. Soldiers were strung up on lamp posts; graffiti proclaiming the injustice of the government were stained on the brick. Fili and Kili constantly ask what could have started this and neither of them seem to have a good enough answer. There are too many things to say and all of them weren't moralizing in the least so both held their tongues.

The sky darkens before they even reach halfway through the city. They’re nearly caught twice and with them having to move at a painfully slow pace it doesn’t take long for Thorin’s temper to hit boiling.

Somehow they end up in a old apartment complex. Based on the emptiness and disuse of the outside, Bilbo’s sure the thing had been condemned. There are too many Military bars on the doors for it to be anything else. Thorin goes about checking each room and after awhile finally settled on one and waves them in.

It’s dark and broken, the windows are stained and murky with dust and neglect. The paintings on the wall are waterlogged and faded. A cool spring breeze just twinged of after rain wafts through the room moving the curtains hanging of the window. There’s a mustiness to the air that dries Bilbo’s mouth and leaves him longing for the outside world.

“There’s two bedrooms. Fili, Kili you take that one, the second door, there, yes. Baggins, you get the first.” Thorin says tiredly he drops his bag on the floor and sat on a cushionless sofa.

“What about you?” Bilbo asked eyebrows raised.

Thorin give him a strange look. “We’ll have to share.” he offers shrugging and Bilbo can feel a slight blush covering his ears. “Do you want first watch or second?” Thorin was thankfully blind to Bilbo’s sudden embarrassment and lack of ability to string a coherent thought.

“Uh, I, I can take second.” He stammered.

Thorin nods, “Better get to sleep now then, not much we can do until morning.” He said quietly and digs in his bag. He hands two protein bars off to the boys who take it and a bottle of water with careful hands before disappearing into the room. There’s a sudden exclamation about something and hushed whispers and Bilbo can only guess there was something in there they liked.

Thorin half smiles and quicker than it appeared it’s gone and he pulls out another bar and hands it to Bilbo.

Bilbo takes it and flops down on the couch as well.

“I really have no connection to them you know. I’m just a teacher.” He says glumly, pulling the wrapping back. His throat is dry and the bar only succeeded in making swallowing hard and uncomfortable.

“You said he offered you something. What scared you off?” Thorin questioned after a few minutes have past and it’s so startling that Bilbo jumps in his skin.

He hesitated but figures he’s not in any position (if he doesn't want to be tossed to the infected) to withhold any information. “A few months ago, when I working in zone three Mister Greag approached me about a higher ranking position. He said that I was much too smart and had the tell tale signs of a greater purpose. The whole thing seemed off to me.” he said and had to drink water before continuing. “He, well he said I could be the key to finding the salvation of the world. And at the time he frightened me so bad I all but slammed the door in his face and told him to go away and that I wanted no part in it.

I was then given the position in zone four and, well, here I am.” Bilbo said waving around him. Thorin doesn't respond and merely sits with his arms on his knees looking at the wall. “I’ve been thinking, Perhaps he knew about Fili the whole time, if he did then, well, I may have just fallen right into his plan when I befriended your boys.”

They sat quietly after that. Thorin didn’t seem in the mood to open up conversation anymore than he did and soon it turned too dark to see the clouds, eliminating any moonlight. Thorin rummaged in his bag quietly humming, before realizing who he was with and tapering off back into embarrassed silence. Bilbo wanted to tell him to keep going, that it was lovely, but couldn't seem to string the right request without sounding like a twat. He rests his head on the back of the couch and thinks over the the choices he’s made in this twisted life and of all the things that’s happened. The last thought—before he fell asleep there on the couch—is that he’s happy his parents died before it got this bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Ewe:** OH GOD WE’RE SORRY WE’RE SCUM we have no excuses. Real life swallowed us both and spat us out. Now Safic just got a job and I’ve started classes. But we’re rolling now, so updates should be faster in between. We hope that you have enjoyed this chapter and the most absolutely necessary manhandling that happened. Hopefully we’ll just get to the part where they begin rolling in the grass and exchanging blows /if you know what I mean/.
> 
>  **Safic** Hey, Safic here, again sorry for the delay. I wanted to mention that we've gained another Beta, She's been a doll to work with and willing to take whatever I throw at her (which means the world to my writing). You can find her on tumblr at Kailthia.tumblr.com she's fantastic and always willing to reach out.


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